North Kansas City Hospital, operating as NKC Health, has announced a significant data breach involving patient information stored by its electronic medical record vendor, Cerner. According to a detailed notice posted by NKC Health, an unauthorized third party gained access to Cerner’s systems as early as Jan. 22, 2025, and obtained data belonging to NKC Health patients. The breach exposed a range of sensitive information. The data potentially accessed includes personally identifiable information (PII) such as names and dates of birth, as well as protected health information (PHI) including Cerner patient identifiers, medical record numbers, doctors, diagnoses, medicines, test results, images and details of care and treatment. The full scope of affected individuals has not been specified, but the breach is considered serious due to the nature of the information involved. NKC Health has begun notifying affecting individuals. NKC Health's response Upon learning of the incident, NKC Health immediately began requesting information from Cerner regarding the breach. Cerner responded by initiating its critical incident response process, securing the affected systems and engaging external cybersecurity specialists to investigate the breach. Cerner also worked closely with federal law enforcement throughout the process. If you receive notification from NKC Health or your provider about this breach, you may want to: Sign up for the free identity theft protection services, if off