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News Release

March 8, 2013

Contact: Carolyn Pennington, 860-679-4864
Email: cpennington@uchc.edu

Patients Notified of Privacy Breach

Free Credit Monitoring Offered; Toll Free Hotline Established

FARMINGTON, CONN. – While employed at the University of Connecticut Health Center, a former employee inappropriately accessed approximately 1,400 patient records that were beyond the scope of the employee’s responsibilities. The records included names, addresses, dates of birth and in some cases, Social Security numbers and other health information. On January 7, 2013, the Health Center became aware of the privacy breach.

At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that as a result of the improper access that any patient’s personal information was retained or used for any purpose.

All Health Center employees are required to undergo training about patient privacy upon employment, and education is reinforced with ongoing training. The Health Center is currently evaluating all education and monitoring efforts to ensure ongoing compliance.

“We sincerely regret the inconvenience and concern this may cause our patients,” said the Health Center’s Privacy Officer, Iris Mauriello. “The actions of one person do not define the integrity of our entire workforce and all of our collective efforts to ensure the privacy of health records. Our patients rely on each of us to ensure safe and responsible use of the information with which we have been entrusted. We take that very seriously,” she added.

Starting today, all patients who were the subjects of the privacy breach will receive instructions on protecting themselves against potential identity theft. The Health Center is also offering the patients, a free, two-year subscription to a credit monitoring service along with insurance coverage to assist with any possible identity theft related to the breach. A “Notice to Patients about Privacy Breach,” detailing the steps patients can take to protect themselves, has been posted on the Health Center's website at www.uchc.edu.

Patients are instructed to call 1-877-313-1398, Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., EST. Patients can be assured that the Health Center is committed to protecting the privacy of all of its patients and has established protocols to safeguard that information.

UConn Health includes the schools of medicine and dental medicine, the UConn Medical Group, University Dentists, and John Dempsey Hospital. Home to Bioscience Connecticut, UConn Health pursues a mission of providing outstanding health care education in an environment of exemplary patient care, research and public service. More information about UConn Health is available at www.uchc.edu.

Note: News professionals are invited to visit the UConn Health Today news page (http://today.uchc.edu) for regularly updated news and feature stories, photos and media stories. News releases are archived at http://today.uchc.edu/newsreleases/2014. UConn Health news and information is also available on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.