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BERWICK &mdash; Geisinger announced on Friday that they have notified certain patients that their protected health information may have been accessed by a former employee in a non-permitted manner.
				Geisinger&rsquo;s Privacy Office was made aware of the breach on June 3 when they were notified that an employee at the Geisinger clinic in Berwick had been accessing medical records without a specific business need to do so.
				An investigation was launched and concluded on Sept. 8, in which it was discovered that the employee had accessed the medical records of over 700 patients from June of 2019 to June of 2020. As a result, the employee is no longer employed at Geisinger.
				The investigation did not turn up any evidence that the employee had retained or removed any information from the records. While no malicious intent was determined, the information that the employee may have accessed included patient names, date of birth, social security number, diagnoses, medications and more.
				&ldquo;At Geisinger, protecting our patients&rsquo; and members&rsquo; privacy is of the utmost importance and we are constantly working on safeguards and protocols to identify incidents such as these so we can prevent such occurrences in the future,&rdquo; said Jonathan Friesen, the chief privacy officer at Geisinger.
				&ldquo;Our investigation leads us to believe that this information was not accessed to commit financial fraud or harm; however, out of an abundance of caution we are providing affected patients one year of identity theft protection free of charge.&rdquo;
				Geisinger has established a toll-free number at 844-929-2293 for anyone who may have been affected by the breach. The number is available from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Geisinger advises patients of privacy breach