Southern California Hospital System faces a class action lawsuit accusing it of failing to safeguard patient health information amid a data breach.
The lawsuit was first filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in October and was removed to federal court in Los Angeles federal court on Nov. 9 .
The hospital learned of the breach in August, according to the lawsuit. Lead plaintiff LaToya Pratcher, a former patient, was notified by the hospital in a letter dated Sept. 29, the suit states.
“We are writing to let you know about a data security incident that involved some of your information,” the letter said, according to the suit. “We determined that an unauthorized party gained access to our IT network between the dates of July 31, 2023 and August 3, 2023."
The letter also said, “To help prevent something like this from happening again, we have implemented, and will continue to adopt, additional safeguards and technical security measures to further protect and monitor our systems,” the lawsuit states.
The letter is a concession that the hospital's "safeguards and technical security measures were inadequate," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit asserts the hospital system maintains a trove of patient information, "including their first and last names, driver’s license numbers, diagnosis information, lab results, prescription information, treatment information, health insurance information, claims information, medical record numbers and dates of birth."
They claim those patients were harmed by the alleged data exposure.
It seeks money damages, plus attorney fees.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Timothy D. Cohelan, Isam C. Khoury and Marta Manus, of Cohelan Khoury & Singer, of San Diego; and Patrick N. Keegan, of Keegan & Baker LLP, of Carlsbad.
Pratcher v. Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 2:23-cv-09508