Patient information could be compromised after a Baltimore hospital employee mistakenly uploaded a spreadsheet to a public third-party AI tool.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, officials were conducting an internal review on Sept. 21 at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center when the data exposure was discovered.
JHM officials said it sent letters on Thursday to notify approximately 3,182 patients about the potential security risk. The letters include instructions for enrolling in 12 months of free credit monitoring through Experian IdentityWorks.
Officials said the AI tool was not approved by the hospital for this purpose and that the spreadsheet included certain patient information related to admissions and treatment from May to September 2026. They said the data may have included patient names, dates of admission and treatment, medical record numbers, account numbers, departments of service, medications administered and provider names.
Hospital officials said the information did not include Social Security numbers, financial account information or other identifying information.
The hospital started an investigation; deleted the initial AI prompt and subsequent thread and document from the AI tool history; and contacted the company that owns and operates the AI tool for further deletion and corrective measures.
“JHBMC is also taking this opportunity to reinforce our policies and training concerning the appropriate handling of protected health information, including restrictions on use of unauthorized applications and artificial intelligence tools and reeducation on the tools that are institutionally approved,” the hospital’s statement stated.
Patients with questions can call JHBMC at 833-931-7766 using engagement No. B174716 weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
READ MORE:Hospital warns 3K patients after AI tool upload exposed records
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