Stolen laptop contained medical data on thousands of patients

Medical data from more than 3,000 patients at Dean Health System and St. Mary's Hospital were stored in a laptop stolen from a doctor's house, prompting Dean and St. Mary's to offer the patients identify theft protection.

The laptop, taken Nov. 8, didn't contain the people's Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers or other financial information, said Kim Sveum, Dean spokeswoman.