Hundreds of patients' medical records were found near the trash outside of a New York City medical office building, according to NBC New York.
The records belonged to patients of gastroenterologists Jonathan Warman, MD, and Alexander Chun, MD. Patient information that was exposed included names, Social Security numbers and medical diagnoses. Additionally, many pictures were found in the files.
Dr. Warman told NBC New York that he and Dr. Chun were moving to a new office down the hall. Patient charts were at the old office to be retrieved by a shredding company.
"Whatever charts that were waiting to be shredded were by the bin to be shredded," Dr. Warman said in an interview with NBC New York. "People who have come into our office to clean things out, they may have thrown out things of ours inadvertently."
An attorney for the gastroenterologists said that both Dr. Warman and Dr. Chun categorically denied improperly disposing patients' records. Additionally, the two said they have "policies and procedures in place regarding the safeguarding and/or disposal of their patients' protected health information."
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