Officials with Dent Neurologic Institute are offering apologies for a privacy breach related to an e-mail that was inadvertently sent to 200 patients. In a written statement, the medical company says it self-reported the incident to the New York State Health Department. Though patient social security numbers or medical diagnoses were not included in the e-mail, the names, home addresses, e-mail addresses, and doctors' names of 10,000 patients and their referring physicians were on a list contained in the message.
The company says "human error" was to blame. Though Dent officials say they are contacting those impacted the error, The Buffalo News reports that several patients have indicated a reporter's phone call provided their first awareness of the privacy breach.