Adventist Health, a hospital and clinic network in Simi Valley, will pay $40,000 as part of a civil settlement over its failure to protect patient medical files.

The hospital reached a settlement with the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office on April 9 that includes that penalty, according to a news release from the DA’s office.

The case stems from an incident in 2018, when patient files from Adventist were found in a storage unit in Simi Valley. The hospital had fallen behind on rent for the storage unit, and the storage business auctioned off the contents of the unit. Adventist recovered the files, and the District Attorney’s Office determined that personal identifying information in the files was not released to the public.

Adventist Health has since enacted new policies to safeguard patient records to prevent a similar incident from happening again, the District Attorney’s Office said.