(CBS) LOS ANGELES Letters carrying identity theft warnings have been sent to 25,000 patients who have been treated at Kaiser Permanente’s South Bay Medical Center, after two contract employees were arrested on suspicion of stealing their personal information.

Pamela Moore of Los Angeles and LaShonda McKenzie of Hawthorne, both 27, were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stealing personal information from patients and ringing up thousands of dollars in credit card charges.

Moore and Mckenzie worked for QuestNine Inc., a photocopying company in San Bernardino. Kaiser hired the company to provide workers to copy patients’ medical records. The women also handled copies of medical record requests.
 

The two women, who worked at the Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center in Harbor City, are accused of using patient information to apply for credit cards. When the pair was arrested, brand-name refrigerators, stoves, televisions, clothing and other items bought with the credit cards were recovered, Redondo Beach Police Sgt. Pete Grimm said.

One of the suspects allegedly paid gas and electric bills with the credit cards. At least six patients have been identified as being possible victims.

Kaiser has sent letters to 25,000 of its members warning them about the situation. The company’s officials have not yet decided whether to reimburse the patients for the money they have lost.

Tara O'Brien of Kaiser said that victims could include patients who visited the emergency and surgery departments at the Harbor City facility or made specific requests for copies of their medical records.

"We think that a very small number, a handful of members, have been affected," O'Brien said, adding that this type of theft can happen anywhere, not just at Kaiser’s South Bay Medical Center.

Redondo Beach police detectives began an investigation on Oct. 26 when a patient said someone had opened Wal-Mart accounts in her name and that she had begun receiving letters from collection agencies demanding payment.

When Kaiser officials learned what had happened in November, the pair were no longer working for them.

The San Bernardino firm told KCAL that they planned on instituting stronger background checks on its employees, but the pair had no criminal records.

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