http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/100207/news_20071002049.shtml 

By Lee Shearer
October 2, 2007 

A computer server missing from an Athens Regional Medical Center medical 
clinic in Watkinsville could contain private patient information.

An ARMC Security Incident Response Team is working to find out exactly 
what information was on the computer, according to ARMC spokeswoman 
Elaine Cook.

"We don't know yet," Cook said.

Patients will be notified if the security team determines that patient 
information or financial information was on the stolen computer, she 
said.

As the team investigates, ARMC workers have been issued new passwords, 
she said.

The hospital is treating the missing computer as a theft, not just 
misplaced property.

The team will find out what is in the machine's memory "as soon as 
humanly possible," Cook said.

According to the Oconee County Sheriff's Office, the computer, a Dell 
Optiplex GX-620, disappeared sometime between Sept. 21 and last Tuesday 
from the hospital's Regional First Care clinic at 1010 Village Drive in 
Watkinsville.

Workers from an outside company had been working in the clinic during 
that period, according to the sheriff's report.

The computer was used as a server (a computer that holds information 
that can be accessed by other computers in a network), according to the 
sheriff's report.

ARMC officials found the computer was missing after they noticed it was 
not responding to queries from other computers.

A system set up by the hospital's information technology department 
alerted hospital officials that the server was offline and not 
communicating, Cook said.

Although the computer was a server, it was a backup server, not the main 
one used at the Regional First Care clinic, Cook said.


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