Notice of Privacy Incident

NOTICE OF PRIVACY INCIDENT

The letter below was mailed February 20 to 2,852 individuals whose personal health information may have been inadvertently exposed when an email containing the information was sent to the wrong address. These patients were seen at The Queen’s Medical Center and Queen’s North Hawaii Community Hospital between June 1, 2019 and January 27, 2020.

If you did not receive a letter, your information was not affected. The letter text is being provided here for anyone who may not have a current home address or is not able to receive mail at the address The Queen’s Health System has on file. Those individuals may call 1-844-904-0956, Monday through Friday between 8:00 am and 5:30 pm, HST for more information.

There is no indication that the information has been or will be misused. However, maintaining our patients’ trust is our utmost priority and thus, we believe proactively making them aware of this situation is essential. The Queen’s Health System takes the privacy and confidentiality of our patients’ information very seriously and deeply regrets the concern and inconvenience this situation may cause.

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February 20, 2020

Dear

The Queen’s Medical Center is committed to providing superior healthcare, and we take our responsibility to protect the confidentiality and security of our patients’ information very seriously. Regrettably, we are writing to inform you of an incident that involved some of your personal health information. Importantly, please be assured that your Social Security number and financial account information were not involved, so your financial security is not at risk.

We have no indication that your information has or will be misused. However, in an abundance of caution, we are advising you of the incident, and want to assure you that we take it very seriously. We recommend that you review the statements you receive from your insurer and health care provider. If you see any services that were not received, please contact the insurer or provider immediately.

As background, on February 3, 2020, a Queen’s Health System employee inadvertently sent an email to the wrong address. The email included an attachment that contained patient information, including your name, patient account number, health plan ID, diagnosis, admission date, discharge date, and other limited information related to your care. The error was discovered the next day and steps were immediately taken to contact the recipient and recall the message. To date, our efforts to contact the individual or recall the email have been unsuccessful.

Our duty to protect the privacy and confidentiality of our patients’ information is one we take very seriously. We deeply regret the incident and sincerely apologize for any concern it may cause.