Tampa General Hospital tgh.org Tampa General Hospital data breach 2014: what happened and what to do
In August 2014 Tampa police found printed Tampa General Hospital patient face sheets on a person unconnected to the hospital. The hospital said an employee accessed them without authorization. HHS lists 675 patients. Names, birth dates and some Social Security numbers were involved.
View all 13,177 breaches- Breach date
- 14 Aug 2014
- Made public
- 12 Sept 2014
- Last updated
Reviewed by Anthon Wansland
Head of Product & Co-Founder
Serus is a privacy company with paid tools to find and remove your personal data. This page is free and based on official sources.
Tampa General Hospital reported in September 2014 that an employee had accessed and printed patient information without authorization. HHS lists the breach as affecting 675 people.
What happened
Tampa police told the hospital on August 14, 2014 that they had found hospital documents during a traffic stop and arrest of a person with no connection to the hospital. The documents were printed patient face sheets for people scheduled for surgery between October 3, 2011 and August 7, 2014. The hospital fired the employee involved.
Sources checked: scworld.com, healthexec.com, campussafetymagazine.com
Last verified against the official page:
What was exposed
The face sheets held patient names, addresses, birth dates, insurer and diagnosis details, and in some cases Social Security numbers. Patients whose Social Security numbers were involved were offered a one-year credit monitoring subscription.
What it means for you
A name, a date of birth and a Social Security number are what a criminal needs for tax refund fraud or to open credit in your name. The hospital said it added technology that limits what each employee can see based on their job, including access to Social Security numbers.
Not the 2023 incident
Tampa General had a much larger, separate ransomware incident in 2023. This page covers only the 2014 case.
What to do if you were in it
- 1
Freeze your credit
Place a free credit freeze at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, separately at each one, as the FTC explains. It blocks most new accounts in your name and you can lift it when you need credit. Do this first if your Social Security number was in the notice.
- 2
Take the credit monitoring
If you got the hospital's offer, the FTC recommends taking it. Check your reports for accounts you don't recognize at annualcreditreport.com.
- 3
File your taxes early
Filing early makes a fake return harder. If someone files in your name, report it at IdentityTheft.gov.
- 4
Read your insurance statements
Question any treatment or bill you don't recognize. That's how medical identity theft shows up.
- 5
Check whether your details are in other breaches
Run a free Serus scan to see whether your email or phone number shows up in this and other breaches. Serus monitors breach databases and the dark web and alerts you when your data appears; it can't remove data from a breach.
Official filings
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , filed 12 Sept 2014 : 675 people
Timeline
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The breach happened
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The company made it public
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Reported to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Frequently asked
Was I affected by the Tampa General Hospital breach?
The hospital notified the 675 patients whose information was involved. If you got no letter, you weren't on that list.
What was exposed?
Names, addresses, birth dates, insurer and diagnosis details, and in some cases Social Security numbers.
How did the hospital find out?
Tampa police found printed face sheets on a person unconnected to the hospital and told the hospital on August 14, 2014.
Should I freeze my credit?
If your Social Security number was involved, yes. A freeze is free and blocks most new accounts in your name.
Sources
- scworld.com/news/tampa-general-hospital-breach-impacts-hundreds-of-patients
- healthexec.com/topics/health-it/cybersecurity/unauthorized-access-cause-tampa-general-hospital-breach
- campussafetymagazine.com/news/data_breach_at_florida_hospital_comprises_information_of_nearly_700_patient/
- ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/breach/breach_report.jsf
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