Franciscan Health System is trying to ensure the public and affected patients understand that patients’ full medical records were not involved in a Catholic Health Initiatives breach disclosed yesterday. That does not mean, however, that medical information may not have been exposed. In a statement published in the News Tribune, the spokesperson explains:

“What was contained in our employee’s work email accounts was fragments of demographic and clinical information that do not make up the totality of a patient’s medical record. These fragments constitute patient information under privacy laws, and require us to notify patients that this information has been compromised. This information was contained in emails, spreadsheets, Word documents, etc. and does not make up our medical records,” he wrote.

“We have no evidence that our medical records have been compromised. We also have no evidence that the information in the emails has been used in any way, however, as a precaution, we began sending letters to affected patients on March 28.”

Read more on News Tribune.