TEXAS COMPUTERS CONTAINING HOSPITAL PATIENT DATA STOLEN KXAN.com - News, Weather, Sports - Austin, TX Laptop Computers Stolen From Hospital Parking Lot: "Laptop Computers Stolen From Hospital Parking Lot

Feb 16, 2007 04:54 PM EST


Thieves have swiped laptop computers from a hospital parking lot in the Hill Country. The two computers are missing from Burnet. But it's the information on them that's important.

There are about 2,500 patients' names, medical information and some social security numbers. Patient information stored in computers: just how secure is it?

"You cannot access that data. It's just gibberish. It's meaningless without the software. Then, you need the four different passwords to get into the different levels," Scott Fuller, spokesman for Seton Highland Lakes Hospital, said.

But it was just outside the walls of Seton Highland Lakes Hospital where authorities say a thief took advantage of a brief lapse in the steps taken to protect patient information.

A hospital employee stepped into an on-site office, leaving two laptops locked in her car.

"There was a few seconds of opportunity. Thief had been planning this event, waiting for an opportunity to strike," Fuller said.

The report shows a thief smashed her window and made off with the computers. They contained information for 2,500 child patients.

"The likelihood of the data ever being retrieved was probably less than 1 percent," Fuller said.
Fears involve someone finding a way.

"You can ruin somebody. You see all the news all the time, even parents using their children, ruining their credit before they have the opportunity to establish any," said Burnet resident Jessica Furtado.
Codes, passwords and protocols aside...

"I don't want anybody to get my information. You wouldn't think about it in a small town, but it happens," Furtado said.

"It would be prudent for us to look at our protocols as always, so we're not leaving anything out, but again, this was a very opportunistic crime," Fuller said.

The stolen information came from that facility's mobile medical unit called Care-A-Van.

The program treats low-income children at elementary schools in Burnet and Llano counties.
Call 1-888-325-3456 to find out your risk level and more about identity theft.