Irish Data Breach Could Touch United States

The Irish Data Protection Commissioner's office is sending letters to 60 present or former clients, including at least four hospitals, of a transcription firm with a presence in the United States that is accused of selling patient information to a third party.

 Tallaght Hospital in Dublin confirms that dictated physician notes delivered to U-Scribe were sent to the Philippines for transcribing and had been sold to a third party. The hospital told Irishhealth.com that it had not been aware that ownership of U-Scribe changed twice during the past two years.

The scope of the record selling is not yet clear.  The Irish Examiner reports Philippine police raided offices in the nation owned by a firm that received the information for transcription from U-Scribe. While Irish officials have no evidence of information being breached beyond Tallaght Hospital, they told the Examiner that it would be highly unusual for such a leak to be confined to one hospital.

U-Scribe declined to comment to multiple Irish news services and a telephone call to its U.S. office in Sebring, Fla., was not returned.