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  The Health Record Review
by Frank Irving


Survey Finds Patients Wary of EHR Security

Posted on Wed, Jul 20, 2011 - 12:55 pm

Amid the move by physicians and hospitals to adopt EHRs, patients remain concerned about the security of their personal health information. That’s the high-level finding of an online survey conducted in early May among more than 2,700 U.S. adults by Harris Interactive on behalf of Xerox Corporation.

Xerox, a $22 billion business process and document management firm, released a summary of the survey findings on July 20.
According to the summary, nearly 80 percent of respondents who have concerns about digital medical records indicated stolen personal information by a computer hacker to be their No. 1 worry; followed by the threat of lost, damaged or corrupted records at 64 percent; and the misuse of information at 62 percent.
“The survey results indicate an urgent need for better patient-provider communication,” said Paul Solverson, partner, strategic advisory services, at ACS, a Xerox company. “Providers need to start conveying the benefits of electronic records, particularly the security advantages over today’s paper-based system.”
And survey respondents are still unclear on how EHRs impact them. Only 18 percent (up just 2 percent from Xerox’s 2010 survey) of U.S. adults who have a healthcare provider have been approached by their provider to discuss EHRs, the survey summary said.
At the same time, this year’s survey found that more than half of U.S. adults familiar with the conversion of paper records to digital records (51 percent) believe that EHRs will result in better, more efficient care -- up from last year’s survey when only 49 percent agreed.
Photo by AMagill courtesy of Creative Commons license.

Comments

I am pleased to see such a

Posted by GreatScot on Fri, Jul 22, 2011 - 02:57 pm.
I am pleased to see such a large percentage of people that are concerned about security. Twenty years ago I was hesitant about using expedia or other online sites for security reasons. Today all my banking is done online. When was the last time any of you went inside a bank? I am sure the online security for each of your banks has increased over the years. In addition to a password, you probably have to answer a personal questions and after you see your unique identifier enter your next password. Are we still worried about bank security? Yes! does it stop us banking online? No! As we go forward I am sure we will see improved security. I will embrace it, and at the same time I will be pushing everyone to be more focused on it. The one thing I would say though is that I want to make sure my information is stored in a cloud environment rather than on a desktop. One system to look at that is based in the cloud ishttp://mitochonsystems.com The bottom line is that without increased use of technoilogy we will not see the advances in patient care that are possible.