HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) Primary notice
Posted on the HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) with a submission date of June 4, 2015.
- Organization as reported
- Lancaster County EMS, SC
- Entity type as reported
- Healthcare Provider
- Category as reported
Improper Disposal
- Location of information as reported
- Other Portable Electronic Device
- Submission date
- June 4, 2015
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 14783, row:5922)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
A safe containing two unencrypted computer flash drives and two unencrypted hard drives went missing from the administration building of covered entity (CE), Lancaster County EMS. The protected health information (PHI) stored on the missing hard drives and flash drives included patients' names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, medications, medical histories, medical treatment, and healthcare insurance information for 55,000 individuals. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, the 55,000 affected individuals, and the media. In response to the breach, the CE implemented universal controls to ensure that only the CE's devices can connect to its network.. The CE also implemented security controls and physical safeguards to further restrict access to its server room. In addition, the CE implemented video security system monitoring of its server room. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.