The protection of our patients’ information is a priority for us at Intramural Practice Plan – Medical Sciences Campus – University of Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, we are writing to inform our patients of an incident that occurred that potentially involves patient information. We take this matter very seriously and understand the personal nature of the information at issue.
On July 15, 2019, we discovered that our information systems were subject to a ransomware attack, which impacted our patients’ clinical, demographic, and financial information. Immediately after discovering the incident, we retained outside legal counsel and a forensic consultant to investigate and analyze its impact. We are also cooperating with federal law enforcement.
We immediately took steps to ensure the security of our patients’ information, including engaging an IT consultant to restore our information systems. As a result, none of our patients’ information was lost because of the incident. To date, there is no evidence of any misuse of our patients’ information. Still, we recommend that our patients remain vigilant and continue to monitor their accounts and healthcare records.
The security of our patients’ information is of the highest importance to us, and we are handling this incident with the greatest of care. To reduce the likelihood of a similar event occurring in the future, we have strengthened our technical safeguards, revised our policies and procedures, and we are providing additional training to our employees. We will continue to monitor the situation and will advise our patients if we become aware of new developments.
We always strive to protect our patients’ information and we welcome the opportunity to answer any questions our patients may have about this notice by email to cumplimientoppmi.rcm@upr.edu