On April 2, 2012, Keller Grover filed a class action complaint against St. Joseph Health System and several of their acute care hospitals alleging the improper and negligent disclosure of personal and medical information associated with 31,800 California patients. According to the complaint, the personal and medical information was negligently made accessible and disclosed to members of the public when it was stored in an unsecured St Joseph Health System network folder that could be found using an internet search engine such as Google and accessed by anyone using the internet.  The personal and medical information included patient names, body mass index, blood pressure, lab results, smoking status, lists of diagnoses, medication allergies, advance directive status, and demographic information such as spoken language, ethnicity, race, gender, and birth date from patients.

In August 2015, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kim G. Dunning preliminarily approved a settlement valued at $28 million with a minimum class member payout of $241 as well as other proposed benefits.  If finally approved this settlement will represent the largest known medical data breach payout per class member.  The final approval hearing is scheduled for February 3, 2016.

 

 

Click here to read the complaint.