Health Information Exchange Featured Article

December 05, 2011

As EHR Adoption Rises, So Do Problems



Here’s the good news: one-third of office-based physicians have “basic” electronic health records (EHRs) or electronic medical records systems (EMRs), according to preliminary figures from the federal 2011 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, as posted by Joseph Goedert at healthdatamanagement.com.

But here’s the bad news: just as the country’s physicians are shifting to digital records in large numbers, so, too, is the amount of confidential medical data being breached, according to a second story by Goedert.

Some experts, in fact, say medical data is no safer now than a year ago, Goedert writes. And a recent data breach at Sutter Health Foundation in California put at risk the medical data of 4 million patients. 

A benchmark survey did find improved policies and staff training when it comes to data security, according to Goedert, but the frequency of breaches was also higher, along with rising incidents of identity theft, poor control over mobile devices, and two-thirds of organizations not providing protection services for breach victims after it happens.

But here’s a little more good news, according to Goedert, He quotes Larry Ponemon, founder of Traverse City, Mich.-based Ponemon Institute, a privacy and security research firm which conducted the study, as saying that the rate of breach reporting has improved, which could be the reason more breaches are being recorded – more healthcare facilities are now recording. “That is our gut feeling,” he told Goedert.

In terms of the increased number of physicians switching to digital records, Goedert adds that, beyond the nearly 34 percent of responding physicians with a basic system, 57 percent say they have “any EMR/EHR system,” defined as a medical or health record that is all or partially electronic.

A year ago, according to Goedert, about 51 percent reported having any electronic records system at all, no matter how primitive, and 25 percent said they had a basic EHR/EMR. He cautions that figures for 2010 and 2011 are preliminary, representing the returned mail surveys but excluding in-person surveys.

In 2009, the last year with complete data available, just under 50 percent “of surveyed physicians had ‘any system’ and 22 percent had basic EMR/EHR,” Goedert reports.

Fifty-two percent of physicians responding to the survey in 2011 expected to apply for electronic records meaningful use incentive payments, up from 41 percent in 2010. More survey results are available here.

Technology is definitely changing the way we deal with illness. But with the improvements come more areas to police and stay on top of.



Deborah DiSesa Hirsch is an award-winning health and technology writer who has worked for newspapers, magazines and IBM in her 20-year career. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell
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