The New Mexico Department of Health reported that an employee’s laptop was stolen from the employee’s vehicle. The incident potentially compromised patient PHI.
According to the reports, the vehicle was parked at St. Joseph on the Rio Grande Church, where several other burglaries took place that same day. Affected information includes patient first and last names, dates of birth, facility unit and medications. In some cases, diagnosis data may have been exposed.
“The laptop and certain files were password
Data breach at New Mexico Department of Health
protected,” the department explained. “The Department of Health has no evidence indicating that any individual’s protected health information has been accessed or utilized.”
Department mentioned that patients who may have been affected would have visited the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, New Mexico between June of 1997 and September of 2013 or the Sequoyah Adolescent Treatment Center in Albuquerque between 2013 and 2015.
Around 561 individuals are affected by the incident. According to the statement:
- The Department of Health has established a call center with ID Experts to answer questions and help the affected individuals enroll in the no-cost credit monitoring.
- The Department has notified individuals impacted in writing and has set up a year’s worth of no cost credit monitoring.
- The Department of Health has no evidence indicating that any individual’s protected health information has been accessed or utilized.
- The Department of Health is working with law enforcement, but at this time, the laptop has not been recovered.
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