Notice of Data Breach

On January 17, 2020, Hawaii Pacific Health (HPH) learned that the personal information of its patients may have been inappropriately accessed by a Straub Medical Center employee. We identified that the employee accessed patient records between November 2014 and January 2020 and some instances of access may not have been for a valid reason. The employee involved in this matter is no longer employed by Straub. This notice is on behalf of Straub Medical Center, Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, Pali Momi Medical Center and Wilcox Medical Center.

The patient information that may have been accessed include: patient demographic information (including first and last name, address, phone number, email address, date of birth, religion, race/ethnicity, and social security number), medical record number, primary care provider, past or current dates of service, appointment type and related notes, hospital account number, department name, provider name, guarantor (the person responsible for payment) name and account number, and health plan name.

The trust our patients have in us to provide for their health care needs is very important to us, and that includes safeguarding their personal information. Therefore, we want to ensure that our patients, community and regulators are made fully aware of this issue.

In response to this incident, HPH is reviewing its internal procedures and staff training to make any necessary adjustments. We are also looking at new technologies that will improve our ability to more quickly detect patterns of access that may indicate an employee is viewing health information inappropriately.

On March 17, 2020, we mailed letters to all affected individuals. While we believe that the ex-employee was likely accessing the information out of curiosity, rather than for the purposes of identity theft, HPH is including an offer of one year of free credit monitoring and identity restoration services. If you have not received a letter regarding this breach, but would like to confirm whether your information was potentially affected, you may call the toll-free phone number below.

A dedicated, toll-free call center is available for questions and concerns:

(833) 570-0382
6am – 6pm PST
Monday – Friday (excluding national holidays)