Mercy Hospital Logan County

On July 1, 2017, the covered entity (CE), Mercy Hospital Logan County, discovered that a binder was missing from its Laboratory Department that contained the protected health information (PHI) of 629 individuals. The PHI included patients’ names, medical record numbers, and information related to four clinical tests. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media. Following the breach, the CE ceased manually recording patients’ test results in a binder and began entering them into its electronic system. Also, the CE implemented a procedure that restricts access to the laboratory and increased physical security for the laboratory. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.