Nude photos names KU Health Kansas hospital sued for data breach

pThe University of Kansas Hospital Authority and Health System along with Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Epic Systems Corp are facing a class action lawsuitppTwo undisclosed patients filed a lawsuit April 15 after a Lawrence physical therapist breached more than 400 peoples medical data to target women whod had breast augmentation surgery and other plastic surgery according to documents filed in the US District Court of Kansas The undisclosed patients are suing through a class action on behalf of themselves and the other women targetedppAt least 425 patients of Plastic Surgery Specialists of Lawrence an affiliate of LMH suffered grave invasions of their privacy when their most intimate health information and medical files were accessed by a physical therapist employed by KU Health who had no affiliation to LMH or its plastic surgery clinic and who never provided treatment to Plaintiffs the court documents saidppThe Kansas Board of Healing Arts and Lawrence Memorial Hospital didnt immediately respond for commentppThe University of Kansas Hospital is one of three parties named in a lawsuit alleging violations of patient privacy KU Health media relations director Jill Chadwick said in an email We take this seriously patient privacy is very important to us We just received the complaint and our teams are reviewing it currentlyppThe lawsuit claims the unnamed physical therapist had been breaching patient private medical data using his KU Health credentials for more than two years before he was caught The data in each patients files included nude clinical photographs body measurements and other highly sensitive personally identifiable informationppWhen KU Health administrators discovered or were informed of the physical therapists action they fired him while failing to notify law enforcement and not promptly notifying patients of the breach the lawsuit claimsppKU Health knew or should have known that Physical Therapist was repeatedly accessing the medical records of LMH plastic surgery patients without any legitimate treatment relationship yet failed to take corrective action the lawsuit reads This lack of oversight enabled his unlawful conduct to continue unchecked for yearsppThe first unnamed plaintiffs file included multiple beforeandafter photos of her fully nude body including her chest and genitalia the lawsuit said The file also included other sensitive information like her body measurements her full name date of birth physical address phone number Social Security number and health insurance informationppThe second unnamed plaintiffs file had similar information and some of the surgery photos included her face in them according to the lawsuitppTwo months after discovering the breach KU Health sent letters to affected patients about the breach However according to the lawsuit KU Health failed to provide noncontradictory information the name of the physical therapist how many were impacted by the breach what private information was accessed and whether the physical therapist made copies of data or simply viewed itppThe class action lawsuit outlines 13 legal counts the patients are suing on Listed below are the countsp