UF Doctor Quits After Putting Medical Records at Risk

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The private health information of 1900 local patients may have been compromised when a Jacksonville doctor gave his computer away.

Dr. Francis D. Ong resigned from his position as a University of Florida assistant professor of plastic surgery at the College of Medicine-Jacksonville.

UF privacy officials say Dr. Ong stored his patients' health records on a computer, which he eventually gave to some acquaintances -- a Jacksonville family.

Dr. Ong told investigators, a member of that family replaced the computer's operating system, resulting in the permanent loss of most of the patient information.

"Dr. Ong has reported that the family members used the computer for their personal use and have said that neither they nor anyone else viewed any pictures or medical information on the computer," said David Behinfar, privacy compliance manager at UF's College of Medicine regional campus in Jacksonville.

The computer has been returned to the University of Florida, and the school tells us the risk of anyone using the information for unlawful or mischievous purposes is extremely low.

Still, the hospital mailed letters on Monday notifying all of Dr. Ong's patients whose information might have been compromised.

The patients involved were treated by Dr. Ong between July 2005, when he joined UF, and December 2007.

The information stored, included unsecured digital photos of his patients along with identifying information that may have included names, dates of birth, Social Security or Medicare numbers, and some individual medical information.

According to UF policy, confidential patient information should only be storied in highly secure university servers; not on individual computer hard drives.

As a result, UF officials say Dr. Ong will no longer be working with the University of Florida's College of Medicine.

"We work hard to earn our patients' trust and confidence," said Dr. Robert C. Nuss, Dean of UF's Jacksonville campus.

"We deeply regret this event and apologize to our patients who it may have affected," Dr. Nuss tells us. "We have taken steps to prevent incidents of this type from occurring in the future and are continuing to educate our physicians and staff on our electronic data storage policies."