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 Dec. 18, 2018.
- Organization as reported
- Tift Regional Medical Center, GA
- Entity type as reported
- Healthcare Provider
- Category as reported
Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of information as reported
- Submission date
- Dec. 18, 2018
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 13596, row:4735)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
Tift Regional Medical Center, the covered entity (CE), discovered that on June 20, 2018, an unknown individual gained access to two employee email accounts. A forensic investigation determined that the breach affected 1,045 individuals' protected health information (PHI) and included patients’ names, dates of birth, and clinical information such as lab results, treatments, and doctors’ notes. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media. To prevent a similar breach from reoccurring, the CE retrained staff on detecting malicious emails and how to safeguard passwords. In response to OCR’s investigation, the CE added a new security feature on their removable devices that can detect and filter malicious links and attachments.