Sentara Health is conducting an investigation into two remote workers whose identities did not align with their given identities in the hiring process.
NORFOLK, Va. — Sentara Health is alerting some of its patients about a potential risk to their personal information.
At the beginning of the year, 13News Now was told that Sentara’s Health Lab hired two individuals to process lab requisitions. Now, the institution is acknowledging a lab privacy incident involving the two hires.
Sentara confirmed the two individuals, hired to work remotely, were hired in January to process the orders a provider sends to a lab to tell them what type of lab tests to run on a patient.
On April 3, Sentara said a manager brought concerns about the two remote workers’ identities to Sentara’s Compliance Department. A Sentara spokesperson said the pictures the two people submitted during the hiring process did not appear to match the people participating in the virtual departmental meetings.
That led Sentara’s Privacy and Cybersecurity departments to conduct an internal investigation, which found that while the individuals were performing their required duties, they were not performing these duties from within the United States.
Sentara said this privacy incident could impact patients who received lab tests between January and April 10, 2025.
Officials said the personal information accessed may have included patient names, addresses, dates of birth, medical record numbers, lab tests ordered, and Social Security numbers.
Patients affected should have received notification letters by mail and offered complimentary credit monitoring services.
In response, Sentara said it’s committed to preventing a similar incident from happening again, including a further review of technical controls.
Sentara said it takes responsibility to safeguard personal information and regrets any concerns this incident might have caused.
Any patients who think they might be impacted can call the dedicated call center at 1-877-728-0077, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.