Chicago’s Saint Anthony Hospital Reports Breach Affecting 146,000 Individuals
Saint Anthony Hospital, a nonprofit, faith-based, acute care, community hospital in Chicago, has started notifying individuals about unauthorized access and/or theft of some of their personal and protected health information. The substitute breach notification does not state when the unauthorized access was detected, only that an unauthorized third party accessed and/or acquired certain files and folders of unstructured data from its email system on February 27, 2025. The forensic investigation confirmed that electronic medical records were not affected by the incident.
More than a year after the unauthorized access occurred, notification letters are being sent to the affected individuals. Saint Anthony Hospital said the third-party specialists engaged to review the affected files completed their review on February 13, 2026, and notification letters started to be mailed to the affected individuals on March 6, 2026, after the results of the data review were verified and contact information was obtained.
The substitute breach notice on the Saint Anthony Hospital website does not state what types of information were involved; however, the hospital had previously disclosed in November 2025 that names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, patient account numbers, prescription information, and medical histories were involved. Back in November, the hospital reported that approximately 6,600 patients and employees had been affected; however, the breach notice submitted to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights shows that the breach was much larger, involving the protected health information of 146,108 individuals.
While no evidence has been found to suggest any actual or attempted misuse of patient data, the affected individuals have been advised to exercise caution and monitor their free credit reports, financial accounts, and explanation of benefits statements carefully for signs of data misuse. Complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services do not appear to have been offered to the affected individuals.
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