Of all the problems with electronic medical records, the sort of breach that happened at Miami Valley Hospital is the easiest to fix.
The hospital recently notified Bren-nan Eden that four people inappropriately accessed his medical records. The hospital says the four offenders have been disciplined. Meanwhile, Miami Valley has to report the lapse to federal authorities.
Mr. Eden is 19 and was the driver in a spectacular August crash on I-675 that was caught on police video. His survival is both a miracle and a mystery, which presumably explains why some people went prying.
A hospital official whose job is to protect patient privacy - and who can do audit trails to see who's looking at records, which aren't possible with all-paper records - brought the case up to hospital managers, noting that some 200 people had tapped into Mr. Eden's records.
Upon hearing that, Mr. Eden's mother told the Dayton Daily News that she feared that number suggested there could have been major snooping.
That only four people were found to have disobeyed the rules is a reminder of how many people have a role in a critical patient's care. The very fact that so many need to know sensitive patient information is one of the reasons that there has to be scrupulous enforcement of patient privacy.
Obviously, when you go to a hospital (or a doctor's office or pharmacy or nursing home), you don't expect your medical records to be available to any staff person who wants to take a peek. But you still should want those records to be electronic.
The big picture is that digitizing medical records is almost always best for patient care, but especially in emergencies. The situations where having quick, electronic access to records can be a life-and-death matter are many. Think about, for instance, a patient who is unconscious; if he's is unsure about the medicine he's taking or what tests he's had; if multiple doctors are treating a patient; or when prescriptions can interact and cause harm.
As part of the federal stimulus package, the Obama administration dedicated $19.2 billion to help medical providers go electronic. Some places are moving faster than others. Locally, the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association snagged $3 million-plus of that funding to help doctors and clinics in Montgomery, Preble, Miami, Darke, Shelby, Auglaize, Mercer and Allen counties make their records more accessible.
Still, there are big problems ahead. Medical organizations have different operating systems, meaning that not everybody can talk to other entities yet. Like everything digital, security is a huge issue. Laptops with critical data on them can and have been stolen. Geeks and crooks will find ways to hack into systems. Ethical guidelines about how data can be used for research and to make money are fuzzy.
One expert on medical privacy has said that healthy people care more about privacy, while sick people worry more about doctors having all the information they need to know - notwithstanding the downsides to electronic access.
Professionals can err on the side of taking good care of people while still giving them the protection they deserve. But the growth curve for doing that won't be quick, and it does require individuals to at least follow fundamental rules about patient rights.
Thanks to http://www.allbusiness.com/health-care/health-care-facilities-hospitals/15258002-1.html submit for this.
