Henry Ford Health System Reports Stolen X-rays, Notifies Patients

Henry Ford Health System in Detroit is notifying 15,417 patients that old X-rays received between 1996 and 2003 were stolen from a contracted storage warehouse.

The organization believes the films were taken on May 24 and a warehouse employee was arrested with others being investigated, according to the patient notice. “Unfortunately, over the past few years, health systems across the country have been targeted by individuals seeking to steal X-ray films to recover the silver embedded in the films. This incident was solely isolated to the warehouse, did not involve any Henry Ford employees, and did not involve any other secured patient information kept by our health system.”

Information on the film included patient name, age or date of birth, gender, medical record number, building location where the X-ray was taken and the image. “Their Social Security number, health insurance number, mailing address, telephone number or other personal identifying information that could be used for identity theft or fraud never appeared on the X-ray films,” according to the notice. Consequently, the delivery system is not offering paid identity monitoring services.

Henry Ford has discussed increased security measures with management at the warehouse and is revising its destruction process for X-rays.