Recently acquired radiology group reports data breach
A recently acquired Florida radiology group is reporting a data breach, which may have impacted patients’ personal information.
The Orlando-based Women’s Center for Radiology shared notice of the “data privacy event” on Friday, with the incident occurring two months prior. On April 29, the practice said it became aware of “suspicious activity” impacting its computer network.
WCR—which has two imaging center locations and was acquired by Solis Mammography in January—immediately hired a cybersecurity firm to help investigate the scope of the matter. Solis emphasized on Monday that the IT outage only impacted legacy systems used by the Women’s Center for Radiology.
“The security of the data we maintain is of utmost importance to us, and we apologize for the concern this causes,” a WCR representative told Radiology Business June 29. “Importantly, this event occurred prior to, and was unrelated to, the [WCR’s] migration to Solis systems. Therefore, there has been no impact to patients or systems at Solis Mammography centers.”
Solis said the issue was the result of an unauthorized user gaining temporary access to parts of the legacy WCR systems. In a notice posted to its website June 26, the Women’s Center said it promptly took steps to contain the suspicious activity and keep IT systems functioning. Certain files appear to have been accessed without authorization in late April, WCR said. Stolen information may have included patient names, addresses, dates of birth, contact info, health insurance details and driver’s license numbers.
The Women’s Center for Radiology said it has notified patients, federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies about the incident. As part of the process, the radiology group is evaluating its policies, procedures and processes to help reduce the likelihood of a similar incident occurring again. WCR also is offering credit monitoring and identify-protection services to customers.
“As a precautionary measure, individuals are encouraged to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft by reviewing account statements, credit reports, and explanations of benefits for unusual activity and to detect errors,” the notice reads. “Any suspicious activity should be promptly reported to the appropriate healthcare provider, insurance company, or financial institution.”
A private practice prior to its acquisition, WCR was founded by Susan L. Curry and has served central Florida for over 36 years. Addison, Texas-based Solis, meanwhile, dates to 1986, has 150-plus locations, and is backed by TowerBrook Capital.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.