Medical Records from 2 OC Hospitals Breached

Confidential health records of up to 21,300 patients treated at two Orange County hospitals may have been available on public search engines because of incorrect security settings on the hospitals' internal computers, a St. Joseph Health System official said on Wednesday. The records covered treatment from February through August in 2011, and they were available to search engines from early 2011 to this month. The 21,300 number represents the number of patients treated during that timespan. St. Joseph discovered the security breach within the past week after receiving a phone call from a patient's attorney, said hospital officials, adding they do not know how the patient learned about the problem.

St. Joseph set up a toll-free number for affected patients who have any questions (877-430-5623). The hospitals have retained a credit-monitoring service and will provide it to the affected patients for a year.