Salem Regional Medical Center patients and former patients are being notified of a data security incident that happened between March 2 and May 2 this year.

Debbie Pietrzak, vice president of marketing for the hospital, told 21 News that the data breach occurred with a medical transcription service provider the hospital uses in Nevada.

According to Pietrzak, the breach did not occur within the hospital or the hospital network but did happen with a contracted service provider for medical transcription services.

Anyone who may be impacted by the data breach that occurred with Perry Johnson & Associates (PJ&A) will receive a letter in the mail informing patients that the medical transcription service will be offering free identity theft protection, with a deadline to sign up by February 14, 2024.

PJ&A states in the letter that the company is not aware of any instances of fraud or identity theft involving the data leak.

Pietrzak said that while the leaked data did not include any credit card information, however, Salem Regional was not clear if any social security numbers may have been accessed.

The letter from PJ&A states the files accessed contained names, social security numbers, and one or more of the following: date of birth, address, phone number, medical record, hospital account number, and date/s of service.

PJ&A offers its services to medical facilities around the US, and the leak may potentially impact patients or former patients at other facilities as well.

Anyone concerned over the data breach should contact PJ&J at 833-200-3558, enter code 4, between the hours of 8 am to 11:59 pm, Monday through Friday.