Police have still been unable to make an arrest in the attempted theft of student health records at the Hudson Health Center.
“It is a weird case,” said Derek Myers, Deputy Director of Student Services. “There is no real motive.”
A health center employee reported to police on July 22 that when she reported to work that morning, she found a lock broken on one of the office filing cabinets where patient records are stored.
“There is no way to tell if any file was taken,” said Wayne Capooth, medical director of student services.
Capooth said the broken lock on four secured filing cabinets each hold several files, making it impossible to tell if any files were taken.
While there is no way to tell if any files were stolen, how the thieves were able to gain entrance to the facility remains a mystery.
“Only seven employees have keys to the center, not including housekeeping, the physical plant and police services,” Capooth said.
Deborah Widman, Hudson Health Center employee, told police that at the time of the crime, each door into the center was locked and no sign of forced entry was found when she arrived the next day.
Even though the health center had not experienced a theft in 15 years before the recent attempt, the center has responded with a new security system.
“We have never really had a problem there before,” Myers said. “But a new security system has been put in place at the center.”
Cash and cough syrup were the targets of the last burglary attempt several years ago.
Why thieves would go through the trouble to attain patient records is up to speculation, according to Myers.
“I can see medicine, but stealing records is strange,” he said.
The main goal of the newest security measures is to ensure that patient records are kept secure and that patients can be confident in their confidentiality, Capooth said.
“One of the most important things here is patient confidentiality,” he said. “We ask patients in a survey if they think their confidentiality is protected and we have received 98 percent satisfaction.”
The new security system features a keypad and several motion detectors installed around the building.
“You have 45 seconds to enter the code once the door has been opened if the alarm is set,” Capooth said. “The motion detectors should catch anyone trying to get into the record cabinets.”
If the alarm is tripped, police dispatch will immediately be notified of a break-in.
Plans are also in the works to add on to the current security system in the future, Myers said.
“We plan on putting in cameras eventually connected to a monitoring system,” he said. “I do feel really safe with this system.”
