Lost Stanton USB stick with 4,000 patients information found

Last month, the Stanton Territorial Health Authoritywas apologizing after a doctor lost an unencrypted USB drive containing patient information and reported it missing.

Now the USB stick has been found.

The doctor hadbeen working onconsult letters that contained medical advice for 52 patients. The physician copied the information onto a USB drive, planning to deliver it to someone who would put it into the health records system.

Instead, it was reported missing on November13.

According to the health authority's top administrator, the physician did not know the drive also contained a database with the names, health card numbers and date of birth of 4,043 patients at the Stanton Medical Centre.

The drive also carried more than 50 letters containing medical advice to patients.

In a letter sent on December 12 to the people whose information was on the memory stick, the chief executive officer of the Stanton Territorial Health Authority wrote that a staff member found the drive and returned it on December 8.

In the letter, CEO Brenda Fitzgerald apologized again for the privacy breach.

Steps were taken last month to ensure USB drives are encrypted.