Some Chabert Medical Center patients may be impacted by data breach

On November 20, 2020, LSU Health New Orleans Health Care Services Division (“LSU HCSD”) notified the public through a press release that it had become aware of a cyber intrusion into an employee’s electronic mailbox. LSU HCSD has since become aware that the employee’s electronic mailbox also included information from its partner hospital, Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center. Therefore, an addendum to the original press release has become necessary.   Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center was notified on November 24, 2020, by LSU HCSD of the possibility that some of its patients’ protected information may have been accessible to the cyber intruder. The patient information at issue was first provided to Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center representatives for analysis on December 3, 2020.  Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center is in the process of reviewing the information and will provide notification to its individual patients impacted by the incident as quickly as possible.

 The intrusion appears to have occurred on September 15, 2020, and the mailbox access was discovered and disabled on September 18, 2020.  The Health Care Services Division is not aware that the intruder actually accessed or misused the patient information in the employee’s mailbox.  The incident did not impact current systems or information at Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center, but rather was limited to one LSU HCSD employee’s electronic mailbox.

The type and amount of patient information varied with each email message but may have included:  patients’ names; medical record numbers; account numbers; dates of birth; dates of service; types of services received; phone numbers; and/or addresses; and insurance identification numbers. A few contained a patient’s bank account number and health information including diagnosis.  In most instances, there was limited information in the email or attachment, meaning only a few of these identifiers were contained in the email.

Out of an abundance of caution, patients who received care at Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in 2013-2014 are encouraged to monitor their credit reports. The website www.identitytheft.gov  provides a step-by-step process to respond to, and recover from, incidents of identity theft.

LSU Health Care Services Division sincerely regrets any inconvenience or concern this incident may cause affected patients. Although strict privacy and security policies were in place at the time of the intrusion, security practices and procedures, as well as additional available methods for protecting the LSU HCSD email system, are being reviewed to determine if improvements can be made to further reduce the risk of such a breach in the future. Any changes will be included in the information security training that all LSU HCSD employees are required to complete.

 Any questions concerning this matter should be directed to Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center at toll free number 1-855-277-1640.

Feature photo courtesy of Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center social media.