WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Private patient information was exposed in a security breach targeting HCA Healthcare, which operates multiple hospitals in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.
In a news release, the medical company, which is based in Tennessee, said certain patient information was "made available by an unknown and unauthorized party on an online forum."
That information includes patient names, phone numbers, email addresses, birth dates, genders, addresses, and patient service dates, locations, and next appointment dates.
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HCA South Florida patients' identity data hacked
Certain information, however, was not compromised, including clinical information like treatment, diagnosis, or condition, payment information like credit card or account numbers, or sensitive information like passwords, driver’s license numbers, or social security numbers.
"This appears to be a theft from an external storage location exclusively used to automate the formatting of email messages," the news release said. "There has been no disruption to the care and services HCA Healthcare provides to patients and communities. This incident has not caused any disruption to the day-to-day operations of HCA Healthcare."
The company reported the breach to law enforcement and has disabled user access to the storage location "as an immediate containment measure."
The news release said HCA Healthcare plans to contact any impacted patients and will offer credit monitoring and identity protection services.
HCA Healthcare operates multiple hospitals in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, including HCA Florida JFK Hospital in Atlantis, HCA Florida JFK North Hospital in West Palm Beach, HCA Florida Palms West Hospital in Loxahatchee, HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital, HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce and HCA Florida Raulerson Hospital in Okeechobee.
It's unclear if any of those facilities were specifically affected by the data breach.
Learn more about the security incident by clicking here.
