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Patients not happy about misplaced information from Emory Healthcare

ATLANTA — Officials from Emory Healthcare have started notifying the more than 300,000 patients whose personal information was misplaced.

Emory Healthcare made the announcement Wednesday following its own two-month investigation in which it said it found no indication of malicious intent. The information of about 315,000 patients was on 10 backup disks, which disappeared.

Channel 2's Tony Thomas talked to one of those victims Thursday.

Robin Kurtzman told Thomas she checks her mail late in the afternoon and she had been she's eagerly waiting for a letter from Emory.

"I had a feeling I was going to be one of them with the number of surgeries I have had," Kurtzman said.

Kurtzman said she isn't satisfied and like many people Thomas has heard from, she wants to know more.

She told Thomas she's worried thieves could potentially have a two-month jump on her efforts to stop any damage.

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Emory said the information is from patients treated at Emory University Hospital, Emory Midtown and the Ambulatory Surgery Center between 1990 and 2007.

"We sincerely regret that this incident has occurred and want to ensure our patients that we are committed to safeguarding their personal information," Emory Healthcare's CEO John Fox said. "As soon it was discovered that the disks were missing, an extensive search was done and is continuing."

Officials from Emory Healthcare announced Wednesday they have lost backup copies of 315,000 patients' personal information.

The disks contained 228,000 patient Social Security numbers. Most of the missing information includes patient names, procedures, surgeon names, dates of surgery and diagnoses.

"Emory Healthcare is recommending individuals regularly review their credit information for anything they do not recognize," Fox said.

For more information, visit www.emoryhealthcare.org/protection or call 855-205-6950.