The West Penn Allegheny Health System is informing about 42,000 people who have been home care or hospice patients that they may be at risk for identity theft.

Their personal information was contained on a laptop computer that was stolen with other items during a home burglary Nov. 24, system officials announced yesterday. The computer was taken from the residence of a home care nurse.

The computer contained personal information dating to about 2000 for current or former patients of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital and Allegheny General Hospital home care departments and the Forbes hospice program, said health system spokesman Tom Chakurda.

"Examples of data on the computer when it was stolen include patient names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers and patient care histories," officials said in a letter sent Saturday to those whose information was believed to be on the computer.

The letter said the employee "had the computer at her home for work-related reasons."

Mr. Chakurda emphasized that only people served by the home care and hospice programs may be involved, not the larger population of patients served by the hospital system.

In the letter, officials said the computer was still on when it was stolen and the data were accessible. They said once the machine was turned off, the data would be protected and could not be accessed.

"We are not aware of any inappropriate use of your information at this time and we currently believe the likelihood of such misuse is low," the letter noted.

The health system is examining other steps that could be taken to improve computer security, he said.

The letter provided instructions on how patients could place a fraud alert on their credit files and obtain free credit reports. The health system also is offering a year of free credit monitoring.

Questions about the letter or the computer theft can be directed online to askquestions@wpahs.org or to a toll-free telephone hot line, 866-559-6309, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Though several weeks have passed since the burglary, Mr. Chakurda said the health system "moved very expeditiously" to address the problem.

Time was needed to verify what was missing and take other steps, such as making arrangements with credit reporting agencies and establishing the toll-free hotline, he said.