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Jewish Hospital was hauled into court today. It's the first step in what could turn out to be a class action lawsuit against Jewish and Our Lady of Peace hospitals over a massive data breach.
Medical files on more than 24,000 patients disappeared. And now, one of those patients is talking about the impact the data breach is having on her life.
"The worst part?" said Tina Waltz. "Wondering what somebody on the outside might do."
Waltz was treated for depression at Our Lady of Peace. The counseling was supposed to ease her nerves.
Now, it has only added to her stress. She was one of 24,600 patients whose information was on a flash drive that disappeared from the psychiatric hospital and substance abuse center around April 1. The hospital waited a month before writing a letter to patients telling them what happened.
"When I saw the letter I thought oh no," Waltz said. "What can you say or what can you think?"
Tina said Our Lady of Peace and Jewish Hospital should be doing more.
"They have not even called and talked to me," she said. "They sent a letter. That's not enough."
Monday the attorney for a woman suing the hospital over what happened, asked a judge to turn it into a class action law suit, covering all 24,600 patients impacted.
" I think this case will be certified at some point," said plaintiff's attorney Ken Henry. "We tried to do it this early just for the simple reason that we have some many identities that are at stake."
The hospital says the threat of identity theft is extremely low.
The flash drive had names, length of stay and insurance information. It did not have social security numbers, phone numbers and addresses, or diagnosis.
Marjorie Farris, an attorney for the hospital, said violation of privacy does not entitle patients to damages.
"Under the law I don't think that is accurate," Farris said. "But that will be for the court to determine."
Turning this into a question of whether this is about stealing someone's identity or protecting a patient's dignity. The judge will decide in August whether or not to turn this into a class action suit. If he does there isn't anything patients need to do. They will be contacted by the attorney filing suit.
Jewish Hospital said it has taken steps to make sure this doesn't happen again including adding security on all hospital computer drives with patient information.
By Eric Flack
WAVE 3 - NBC News
June 28, 2010
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