Breach filing
ArchivedSpartanburg Regional Healthcare System: 400,000 individuals, May 2011.
Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 27 May 2011. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in South Carolina and lists 400,000 individuals affected, which makes it the 1st largest of the 86 South Carolina filings on the register and the 7th largest of the 200 filings submitted nationally in 2011. Among the 4 South Carolina filings made in 2011 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
400,000
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$64.0M
Upper bound, method shown
Rank in SC
1st
of 86 South Carolina filings
Rank in 2011
7th
of 200 filings nationally
Section F.1 / The filing
As posted by HHS OCR
Every value below is the portal's own field for this filing, plus its rank within the register.
- Covered entity type
- Healthcare Provider
- Individuals affected
- 400,000
- Breach submission date
- 27 May 2011
- Submission year
- 2011
- Type of breach
- Theft
- Location of breached information
- Desktop Computer
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- South Carolina (SC)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in South Carolina by size
- 1st of 86
- Rank in 2011 nationally
- 7th of 200
- South Carolina median filing
- 4,125 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- SC-20110527-spartanburg-regional-healthcare-system
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in South Carolina and in 2011
OCR classifies the incident as theft, with the breached information held in a desktop computer. Theft is the type recorded on 10 of the 86 South Carolina filings (12%) and on 62% of all filings submitted in 2011. Desktop Computer appears on 5% of South Carolina filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 34% of South Carolina filings do involve one. At 400,000 individuals the breach is 97 times the South Carolina median filing of 4,125 and 100 times the national median of 4,000 across all 7,884 filings. It is one of 801 filings of 100,000 or more individuals.
As of 28 August 2026 the case is listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive. OCR's closing summary of the case is reproduced in full below.
South Carolina's breach notification statute (S.C. Code 39-1-90) requires notice to affected residents in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: no direct AG requirement (Dept. of Consumer Affairs at 1,000+ residents). The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule ran alongside it: notice to affected individuals and to HHS without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery, which is the clock that put this filing on the portal.
Multiplying 400,000 individuals by IBM's $160 customer-PII cost per record (Cost of a Data Breach 2025, the figure the site's calculator uses) gives a modelled $64.0M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $76.8M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. Because the filing is above the roughly 100,000-record range in which the per-record figure is reliable, the result is an upper bound, not an estimate: fixed costs are spread across far more records at this scale.
Section F.3 / OCR closing summary
The portal's archived description, in full
Written by the Office for Civil Rights when the case was closed and reproduced verbatim from the HHS export.
Three unencrypted desktop computers and one unencrypted laptop computer in need of repair were stolen from an IT employee's vehicle when he stopped at his home when transporting the equipment from an offsite location to the main hospital. The home stop was against the CE's internal policies and procedures and exposed the protected health information (PHI) of 402,647 patients, including names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media and also offered affected individuals one year of free credit monitoring. In response to the breach, the CE revised its new employee and upper management orientation materials to reflect updated HIPAA revisions. The CE encrypted all of the hard drives on its computers. It also updated policies and procedures regarding electronic data and use of company vehicles. Additionally, the CE began distributing an information security newsletter to employees. The CE sanctioned the involved employee for violating the CE's handling of computer equipment policy. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
400,000 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
Upper boundIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$64.0M
400,000 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$76.8M
400,000 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System to HHS, multiplied by IBM's customer-PII cost per record (Cost of a Data Breach 2025 Figure 6 and the 2026 edition). No cost has been disclosed by the entity for this filing; the figure is a planning estimate, not a fact about the breach. IBM's per-record figures come from mid-volume breaches and IBM cautions against applying them to breaches involving millions of records; the site's per-record page explains where the multiplication holds and where it breaks down.
Context: IBM's average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M in the 2026 report ($7.42M in 2025); the global average across all sectors was $4.44M in 2025.
Cost per record: method and limits / Healthcare breach cost, IBM 2026
Section F.6 / Notification clock
South Carolina statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
South Carolina: S.C. Code 39-1-90
- Notice to individuals
- In the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- No direct AG requirement (Dept. of Consumer Affairs at 1,000+ residents)
- Private right of action
- Yes: Residents may sue; actual damages for negligent violations, broader recovery for knowing and willful
- Penalty
- Administrative fines of $1,000 per affected resident for knowing and willful violations
The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule runs alongside the state statute: notice to affected individuals and to HHS without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery.
Section F.7 / Peer filings
South Carolina filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among South Carolina filings in 2011, topped up from other years where 2011 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stokes Regional Eye Centers | Healthcare Provider | 266,170 | 17 Jun 2022 | |||
| South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services | Health Plan | 228,435 | 24 Apr 2012 | |||
| Roper St. Francis Healthcare | Healthcare Provider | 189,761 | 8 Jan 2021 | |||
| State of South Carolina Budget and Control Board Employee Insurance Program (EIP) | Health Plan | 5,596 | 14 Jan 2011 | |||
| Aiken Community Based Outpatient Clinic | Healthcare Provider | 2,717 | 12 Apr 2011 |
Index / Companion schedules
13 HHS breach register
→Hub: every filing, by state, year and entity.
04 Biggest breaches
→Mega-breaches with primary-source cost figures.
Industry / Healthcare
→IBM 2026: $6.64M average, 13 years at #1.
Regulation / HIPAA penalties
→OCR enforcement tiers and the 60-day rule.
11 50-state laws
→Deadline, AG threshold and penalties per state.
Cost / Per record
→Where the per-record model is reliable.
Provenance
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, Breach Portal (breaches affecting 500 or more individuals), retrieved 2026-08-28. Public domain. Individuals affected and dates as reported by the covered entity.
Portal: ocrportal.hhs.gov breach report. Statutory basis: HITECH Act section 13402(e)(4): the Secretary must post a list of breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals. Breaches affecting fewer than 500 individuals are reported to OCR annually and are not posted, so they are not on this register. Status wording follows the portal's two tabs ("Cases Currently Under Investigation" and "Archive") as of 28 August 2026; a filing moves to the archive when OCR closes the case. Modelled costs on this site are a method applied to the reported count, using IBM Cost of a Data Breach per-record figures, and are never a cost disclosed by the entity. This row: hhs-breach-archive__2026-08-28.csv, export row 6884.
Corrections: if you represent a listed entity and the portal row has been amended, email [email protected] with the portal entry and we will re-pull the export.