RALEIGH -- Wake County EMS is missing a laptop computer that contains sensitive personal information for about 850 patients. Paramedics first noticed the computer was missing nearly two weeks ago. Now the county is in the process of notifying patients transported by ambulance that they could be at risk for identity theft.

Wake County EMS has nearly 60 Toughbook laptop computers for paramedics to gather patient information and pass it along to hospitals. But right now, one of them is missing.

“It's a big deal,” said Skip Kirkwood, chief of Wake County EMS. “We regard the privacy of health care information as something that's very important.”

Chief Kirkwood said a paramedic accidentally left the laptop at a computer docking station in the WakeMed Emergency Room on Jan. 17.

Since then, Wake County EMS has reviewed surveillance tapes at the hospital, searched the EMS system, and checked with surrounding EMS and private ambulance services to try to track down the missing laptop. However, with it still missing and the search exhausted, the county is now in the process of notifying about 850 patients their personal medical information might have been stolen.

“Since we lost it, we will do things to assist them in recovering from any loss they have, if anything happens,” Kirkwood explained. He remains optimistic the laptop was simply misplaced and not stolen.

Administrators said the data was protected by several password, but computer specialists say that wasn't nearly enough.

“If [identity thieves] really want access to that data and it's not encrypted, they can easily access it,” explained Dr. Annie Anton, director of ThePrivacyPlace.org and an associate professor of Software Engineering at N.C. State University.

Dr. Anton suggests anyone who is concerned that their personal information might have been stolen should put a fraud alert on their credit. This could prevent an identity thief from opening new accounts using their name.

Dr. Anton also says the EMS computers should have been locked down while unattended.

"Even if its five minutes or one minute, that laptop needs to be locked down,” she said. But EMS officials argue they don’t have time to lock and unlock a laptop in an emergency.

“That's just not practical in this environment,” Kirkwood said. The laptop has to "move from one place to the other all the time, many times a day."

Wake County is now in the process of encrypting patient information on all of its nearly 60 laptop computers, saying that will keep patient information more secure in the future.

Wake County is still figuring out whose personal information was on the computer. They plan to notify those patients by letter within the next couple of days. EMS administrators also plan to meet with hospital security to possibly add surveillance cameras to the EMS work area where they dock computers.