An orthopedic clinic in Raleigh, N.C., was apparently the latest victim of a scam in which patient X-ray films are destroyed by scammers to harvest the silver they contain, according to a privacy-breach notification involving 17,300 patients.
Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic is notifying patients that their X-rays, dating to 2008 or earlier, were taken by scammers and sold to a recycling company in Ohio that harvests valuable silver in them, the clinic's public notice about the incident says.
In January, the clinic hired a firm that it thought would digitize the old X-rays. The clinic provided the films and never received the electronic files, and a subsequent investigation turned up evidence that the clinic “had been the victim of a scam” by the unnamed digitization company.
Although the X-rays contained full patient names and dates of birth, the notice said clinic officials believe the films were destroyed and has not received any notice that patient information had been taken before the recycling. However, “Raleigh Ortho has no way of knowing whether or how patient information may have actually been used,” the notice said.
The clinic is notifying federal agencies about the breach of protected patient information.
A database maintained by HHS' Office of Civil Rights, which handles breach notifications, shows at least six instances of thefts or improper disposal of X-rays since 2010 at clinics and hospitals across the country, all involving fewer than 3,200 people each.
And the database doesn't reflect all such incidents. For example, Huntsville (Ala.) Hospital reported two barrels of X-rays pertaining to as many as 175 patients being stolen by scammers posing as X-ray recycling companies in 2012, according to local media accounts. The silver contained in barrels of X-rays would have been worth $1,200, based on silver commodity prices at the time.
Follow Joe Carlson on Twitter: @MHJCarlson
Send us a letter
Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.
