SPRINGFIELD – Community Mercy Health Partners and its hospitals, Springfield Regional Medical Center and Mercy Memorial Hospital, announced Monday that it is mailing letters to some of its patients related to an inadvertent disposal of lab records in a public recycling dumpster by a CMHP vendor on November 25, 2015.

On November 27, 2015, law enforcement contacted CMHP and advised that CMHP patient records were found in a public recycling dumpster. CMHP employees immediately went to the recycling site, retrieved all the documents in the dumpster, and began an internal investigation. The lab records may include patients’ names, physicians’ names, accession numbers, types of study, guarantor information, health insurance information, diagnoses, other clinical information, and, in some instances, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

This incident did not affect all CMHP patients nor does CMHP believe the information was used in any way. However, in an abundance of caution, CMHP sent letters to affected patients.

For more information please go to the CMHP website at Community-Mercy.org.