SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital - Jefferson City

The covered entity (CE), SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital – Jefferson City (SSMH), reported that documents containing protected health information (PHI) were found in its former hospital that was vacated. The breach affected approximately 301,000 individuals. The protected health information (PHI) involved included names, dates of birth, telephone numbers, dates of treatment, medical record numbers, Social Security numbers, and insurance information. Upon discovery of the documents, SSMH mitigated the breach by conducting an exhaustive search of its former hospital and removing all documents, which were taken to a secure location at its new location. The documents were then organized and inventoried for further review. As a result of the breach, SSMH revised its document retention policies and procedures. Breach notification was disseminated to all affected individuals and the media. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted above.