An employee took home paperwork containing the protected health information (PHI) of 777 individuals that was later recovered by an acquaintance of the employee and returned to the covered entity (CE), Ventura County Health Care Agency. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media. The CE also notified the California Department of Public Health. Following the breach, the CE assigned all necessary employees for retraining, sanctioned the responsible employee, and sent a memo to all necessary staff prohibiting the removal of PHI from the facility. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.
