Mercy Medical Center- North Iowa

The covered entity (CE), Mercy Medical Center – North Iowa, was notified by local law enforcement that a previous employee was under criminal investigation. While the employee was working for Mercy Medical Center, he/she impermissibly accessed the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 1,971 employees. The ePHI involved included names, addresses, diagnoses, conditions, and medications prescribed. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, and the media. In its mitigation efforts, the CE retrained its staff. In addition, the CE is in the process of implementing a new electronic medical record system that will allow the CE to install additional technical and security safeguards to better protect its ePHI.