DENVER -- Kaiser Permanente Colorado began notifying approximately 38,000 members Tuesday of a possible breach of their private health information.

The information was on a laptop that was stolen from the personal car of a national Kaiser Permanente employee in Oakland, Calif., on Oct. 4, according to a news release from the health provider.

Information on the laptop included names, member ID numbers, date of birth, age, gender and provider/physician information and medical record numbers. The data included on the laptop was part of a review of an internal health quality project and is limited to two Kaiser Permanente Colorado medical offices: Skyline and Southwest.

"We believe the laptop was stolen for its street value and not the information on the computer," said Jacque Montgomery, a Kaiser Permanente spokeswoman. "No Social Security information was involved. Kaiser Permanente regrets the situation and believes notifying our members of the possible breach of private health information is the right thing to do."

"One of the things I want to say is we are deeply sorry that this incident occurred at all," said Kaiser Permanente business operations vice president Kerry Kohnen. "The authorities we are working with in the Bay area believe the risk that the theft was related to the information contained on the laptop is very, very low."

This is the latest example of a laptop containing sensitive information disappearing away from a place of work. It happened to the Veterans Affairs Department back east and Metro State in Denver, both this year.

"I think these things happen all the time, but I do think that people probably need to keep better track of their things when they know there's important information on them, " said Jessarae Huddleston.

Kaiser Permanente said it regularly trains its employees to safeguard private health information. The employee in California whose car the laptop was stolen from is no longer with the company.

A special phone line has been set up for members to call with questions. That number is 866-529-0813.