Bluewater Health now confirms there was some patient information on pharmaceutical prescription pads stolen from the abandoned Sarnia General Hospital site earlier this month.
The hospital initially said the stolen property included obsolete pads from physicians, dating from 1999 to 2006.
Communications and Public Affairs Chief Julia Oosterman says they have since learned through their ongoing investigation that a small percentage of the pads did contain some patient information.
"Most of them are carbon copies and most of them are written in hand and are illegible," says Oosterman. "In the small instances where there is some other information available, we are going through researching to find out what the scope is, how many are there, what information is included and we are working with the Privacy Commissioner's Office to ensure that patients are notified in the most appropriate way as soon as possible."
Oosterman also says that due to the manner in which the police acquired the stolen property, they believe the spread of any private information was contained.
Police said that January 10, they were handed a number of old prescription pads that had been left behind in a cab by a female fare. It was determined they had been stolen from the closed Mitton St. site and a 30-year-old woman was charged.
Oosterman is at a loss to explain how the pads remained behind at the former Sarnia General, despite an exhaustive effort to remove all items related to operations prior to vacating the property.
"I simply don't know. It's not acceptable [and] it was never our intention. We, ourselves, did a fulsome sweep, we hired a firm to do a sweep and destroy records. Evidently something was missed and that's simply not okay."
The hospital says a team recently conducted another complete sweep of the site to ensure the derelict facility is clear of any other items.