Boxes of patient information missing from Florida Hospital in Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla. — Boxes of patient information from Florida Hospital are missing, hospital officials said Friday.

A hospital representative said some boxes were misplaced while moving boxes of patient files from one storage unit to another.

In a release, the hospital said, “While transferring boxes from our storage vendor, Access, to another one of our storage vendors, Iron Mountain, we discovered on or about Aug. 17, 2016, boxes containing patient information were inadvertently misplaced.”

Hospital officials said they believe the boxes are “most likely located in either Access or Iron Mountain’s secure facility.”

Hospital officials said as the vendors continue to search, the hospital is notifying patients “out of an abundance of caution,” and officials have also notified government and regulatory organizations about the situation.

“The health, safety and privacy of our patients are of utmost importance at Florida Hospital Medical Group,” a hospital representative said in a release.

Officials said there is no evidence that patient information has been misused, and they are taking the steps necessary to help guard against the potential damage the situation may cause, including providing one year of identity theft protection at no cost for impacted patients.

Channel 9 asked why it took so long to release the information to the public, and hospital officials said they had to follow legal formalities before releasing the information.

Officials said the boxes contained files for an unknown number of patients from seven different locations. They said 6,000 letters were sent to warn patients.

The release also said, “Patients are being notified on how they can learn more. This includes a dedicated telephone line to call with questions: 877-309-9843.”

Cox Media Group