MASSDEVICE ON CALL — An Oakland, Calif., drug bust stumbled on personal health records for about 4,500 Sutter Health patients, hospital administrators warned patients this week.
The records were likely stolen during a massive security breach of Sutter Health security systems in 2011, and the California sheriff department said the find caught them off guard.
Investigators refrained from speculating on how the records ended up in the Oakland bust, but a letter to patients from the president of Sutter Health’s East Bay indicates the records may have come from hospitals in northern California including Alta Bates Summit, Sutter Delta and Eden Medical, the Sacramento Business Journal reported.
Sutter is working with police and has set up a hot-line for concerned patients. The compromised records might include social security numbers, birth dates, gender and other identifying information.
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