Substitute Notice to Patients of Theft of Outdated Radiology Films at St. Joseph Medical Center

St. Joseph Medical Center takes significant steps to protect our patients’ health information. Regrettably, we recently learned that x-rays and radiological films were stolen from the hospital, of which most were old and out-dated.

St. Joseph Medical Center regularly purges and securely destroys outdated x-ray and radiology films using a reputable company hired for that purpose. On September 11, 2011, an individual posing as a representative of a radiological film destruction company removed films that were identified for destruction.

The theft was discovered on September 16, 2011, when a staff member learned of a similar theft at another local hospital and realized that St. Joseph Medical Center films were also stolen. St. Joseph Medical Center launched a thorough internal investigation and reported the incident to the police. St. Joseph Medical Center continues to cooperate with law enforcement but has been advised that the police have not made any arrests.

The theft impacts only those patients who had x-rays and radiological films done during the years 2004, 2005, and part of 2007. These films were stored in paper jackets with the corresponding paper radiology reports and included patient name, date of birth, medical record number, date of service, referring physician, the type of study, and the radiologist’s medical interpretation of the film. The films and paper medical records did not include the patient’s address, phone number, social security number, financial information, or health insurance information.

The paper radiology reports were entered into St. Joseph Medical Center’s electronic record system prior to the theft and are currently available for patient care. The stolen x-rays and films were scheduled to be destroyed as part of the hospital’s record management program. St. Joseph continues to have access to the reports in order to care for and treat patients.

St. Joseph Medical Center believes that approximately 5,000 individual films were stolen. Unfortunately, St. Joseph Medical Center is unable to identify the names of the patients whose films were stolen. St. Joseph Medical Center thinks that the x-ray films were stolen for the silver content and then sold. The silver can be easily removed when destroying the film. Similar incidents in the region and throughout the country have been reported, and St. Joseph Medical Center has no reason to believe that the patient information contained on the paper reports was the target of this theft.

St. Joseph Medical Center deeply regrets this incident and any concern it has created for our patients. St. Joseph Medical Center has reviewed its internal procedures for onsite vendors and strengthened those procedures to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. Patients may call toll-free 877-229-3389 if they have questions about this incident or if they need more information.