An Important Notice to Phoebe Putney Home Health Care Patients Regarding Confidentiality of Patient Information

Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital (“PPMH”) takes our obligation to protect our patients’ personal health information seriously.

On April 9, 2012, PPMH learned from law enforcement officials that a now former employee improperly accessed patient information with the intent to file fraudulent tax returns.  PPMH immediately began an internal investigation to determine the information accessed by the former employee. The former employee may have accessed some patients’ names, dates of birth, and social security numbers some time between June 2010 and April 2012. No medical records were taken, and no medical information has been lost.

We deeply regret any concerns and inconvenience this has caused our patients.  We have reinforced and refined our privacy policies and staff procedures for handling patient information with care to prevent such an incident from happening in the future.

This affected some Phoebe Home Health patients who were treated between July 2005 and April 2012.  As a precaution, we began notifying the affected patients by mail on May 24, 2012. If you believe you may be affected but did not receive a letter by June 8, 2012, please do not hesitate to call 1-855-770-0002 Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time and enter the reference code 7767052412 when prompted.