For immediate release: Dec. 11, 2012
Contact: Susan G. Hill, APR
Director, Marketing and Communications
Office 775-784-6006
Mobile 775-338-7918
susanhill@medicine.nevada.edu

University of Nevada School of Medicine
notifies patients of possible information breach

Solution implemented, no adverse consequences anticipated

RENO, Nev.— The University of Nevada School of Medicine has notified about 1,500 of its patients in northern Nevada that certain personal health and personally identifiable information was placed in shredding bins and improperly disposed of on October 11, 2012.

On the evening of Oct. 11, custodians at the billing office on West Second Street in Reno inadvertently emptied two shredding bins containing billing sheets which included patient names, birth dates, medical complaints, procedures and diagnoses into their regular trash pickup carts. The trash carts, which were lined with a plastic trash bag, were then closed and loaded into a campus trash bin located outside the building. That large bin was picked up early the next morning and taken to the usual on-campus collection where it was compacted and bundled into cubes bound in metal straps, in preparation for transport to a local landfill.

Because it is impossible to know for certain whose paperwork was contained in the two shredding bins, the School of Medicine has erred on the side of caution and notified every patient seen at its northern Nevada Family Medicine, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine clinics between Oct. 1 and Oct. 12.

While the likelihood is small that personally identifiable information was inappropriately accessed while in a closed trash bag bundled into cubes before being sent to the landfill, the School of Medicine notified its potentially affected patients today by letter.

“The security, confidentiality, integrity and privacy of patient personal information are highly valued at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and we apologize for this breach. We are evaluating our shredding policies to develop a comprehensive approach to assure this circumstance does not happen again,” said J. Epperson, chief compliance officer at the School of Medicine.

“Based on the information disclosed and the circumstances of the breach, we do not anticipate any adverse consequences to patients as a result of this breach,” he concluded.

Patients with questions or concerns should contact Christian Koster at 1-888-233-2305.

The University of Nevada School of Medicine, a research-intensive, community-based, statewide medical school, has served Nevada for more than 40 years as its only public medical school. Our mission is improving the health of Nevada’s diverse population through world-class biomedical research, an innovative curriculum integrating basic and clinical sciences, and highly competitive residency and fellowship programs that complement a statewide network of urban and rural clinical facilities. Through targeted growth and investment in research, clinical services and education, we are a resource for improving health care regionally and across the country.