SIU Healthcare says it is reviewing and updating its security policies, following the presumed theft of a laptop in mid-October.
SIU Healthcare CEO Doctor Jerry Kruse says after a thorough search, the computer is still missing. Kruse says a doctor, who is not currently working at SIU for unrelated reasons, had been using the laptop for billing at the Springfield based Memorial Medical Center. Kruse says the laptop contained medical information of nearly 19 hundred patients: "It contained their name and date of birth, date of service, medical record number, diagnoses, the procedure that was done by the physician. And that was pretty much it. It did not contain Social Security number, bank information, credit card number, insurance information, or even their address."
Kruse says all of the information on the missing computer had been backed up, and patients' medical records remain "intact and secure." The Springfield-based health care system says it's sending letters to all of the affected patients, but none have reported suspicion of identity theft.
