Parkridge facilities in Chattanooga are among those affected by a data breach at HCA Healthcare, a Nashville-based health system with 180 hospitals and roughly 2,300 other medical facilities in the United States and the United Kingdom.
HCA officials said in a news release posted on the company’s website that private patient information (including names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, genders and appointment times and reminders) for an estimated 11 million patients was stolen and posted to an online forum.
Officials said they believe medical information (treatment, diagnosis or condition), payment information (credit card or account numbers) and sensitive information (passwords, driver’s license or Social Security numbers) were not compromised. They also said all HCA facilities are operating as usual and patient care is not affected.
Information from anyone who has received care at an HCA-owned hospital or physician’s office may have been stolen, according to the news release. In the Chattanooga region, that includes Parkridge Medical Center, Parkridge East Hospital, Parkridge West Hospital and numerous physician offices.
A full list of facilities is available on the company’s website, where HCA officials said they will continue to provide updates.
“While our investigation is ongoing, the company has not identified evidence of any malicious activity on HCA Healthcare networks or systems related to this incident,” the release states.
Affected patients should receive a notification letter with additional information and support — including credit monitoring and identity protection services if warranted — by mail in the coming weeks, according to the release.
“In the meantime, if we have your email address, we expect to send you an email message in the coming days providing additional relevant information for patients about the data security incident,” the release states. “We encourage patients to remain vigilant in identifying calls, emails or SMS texts which appear to be spam or fraudulent. Additionally, patients should never open links or attachments sent from untrusted sources.”
When in doubt, patients can call 844-608-1803 to confirm whether communications are legitimately from HCA, the release states.
In the first half of 2023, roughly 295 data breaches affecting more than 39 million patients occurred across the health care sector, according U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data cited by the news site HealthITSecurity.
Last fall, a ransomware attack at CHI Memorial’s parent company — CommonSpirit Health — forced hospital facilities in the Chattanooga region offline for nearly three weeks. It took several more weeks for computer systems, including electronic medical records, to be restored at CHI Memorial physician offices.
CommonSpirit officials estimate the company lost $160 million across the nationwide health system as a result of the attack.
HCA officials said in the news release that they don’t anticipate this latest breach adversely affecting the company’s business, operations or financial results.
Parkridge officials declined to comment on the issue locally and referred questions to HCA’s website.
Contact Elizabeth Fite at efite@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6673.