Strauss Borrelli PLLC, a leading data breach law firm, is investigating Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital, formally known as Murphy Medical Center (“Erlanger”), regarding its recent data breach. The Erlanger data breach involved sensitive personal information and protected health information belonging to over 3,100 individuals.
ABOUT ERLANGER WESTERN CAROLINA HOSPITAL F/K/A MURPHY MEDICAL CENTER:
Erlanger is a multi-hospital health system anchored by an academic medical center based in Tennessee.2 Founded in 1889, Erlanger offers a full spectrum of specialized medical services and serves over a million patients a year through its six hospitals in the four-state region of southeast Tennessee, north Georgia, north Alabama and western North Carolina.3,4 Headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Erlanger employs over 6,300 individuals. Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital, more specifically, has locations in Murphy, Andrews, and Hayesville, North Carolina, and offers primary care, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, and more.5
WHAT HAPPENED?
Recently, Erlanger announced that the sensitive personal identifiable information and protected health information in its care may have been compromised. According to the breach notice, in July 2024, Erlanger’s third-party vendor, Nationwide Recovery Service (“NRS”), discovered suspicious activity related to certain systems which resulted in a network outage.1 As a result, NRS launched an investigation to determine the nature of the incident.
Through its investigation, NRS confirmed that sensitive personal information in its systems belonging to Erlanger patients may have been viewed and obtained by an unauthorized third party between July 5 and July 11, 2024. As a result, Erlanger began a review of the data to determine what information had been impacted as well as identify the specific individuals affected. While the information impacted varies depending on the individual, the type of information potentially exposed includes:
- Name
- Social Security number
- Address
- Dates of service
As a result of the data breach, Erlanger posted a notice of the incident on its website. Additionally, Erlanger plans to send breach notification letters to impacted individuals. Based on the website breach notice, Erlanger is providing affected individuals with a list of the specific types of sensitive information impacted. A link to the form breach notification that Erlanger posted to its website is below.
If you received a breach notification letter from Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital f/k/a Murphy Medical Center:
We would like to speak with you about your rights and potential legal remedies in response to this data breach. Please fill out the form, below, or contact us at 872.263.1100 or sam@straussborrelli.com.
