(WTXL) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights is investigating an information technology breach involving Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
The Notice to the Secretary of HHS Breach of Unsecured Protected Health Information database notes a submission about the breach involving Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Inc. was submitted to HHS March 31.
The breach is designated on the HHS database as a hacking/IT incident to the network server.
The HHS database notes that 20,376 individuals were affected by the breach.
A TMH spokesperson told ABC 27 Monday morning that due to the confidential nature of the investigation into this event, TMH is not able to provide additional details.
The spokesperson added that TMH posted a notice to its patients on its website TMH.org, and encourages patients with questions to call TMH's dedicated, toll-free call center.
In a statement to ABC 27 Wednesday, April 12, the HHS Office for Civil Rights noted that generally, it does not comment on open or potential investigations.
TMH announced March 31 it experienced an IT event Feb. 2 and entered downtime procedures.
During the early morning of Feb. 3, unusual activity involving TMH’s computer systems was detected.
TMH said it took action to contain the activity and reported the activity to law enforcement and initiated an investigation with independent experts.
Following an investigation, it was determined an unauthorized person gained access to the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare computer network and obtained certain files from the system between Jan. 26 and Feb. 2.
TMH said letters were mailed to those who were affected by the incident.
The TMH call center can be reached by calling 1-888-567-0040 Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. eastern time.
