Security of healthcare records continues to be an obstacle in moving from paper to electronic records for doctor and patient adoption. As one of my readers has so kindly pointed out, security of medical records remains a very big concern. Therefore, I have decided to write a blog about some of the major mishaps.
Beginning with the basic security blunders, back in 2002, the VA failed to erase all the medical data on 139 computers before giving them away to educational institutions. The computers contained a wealth of Veteran's data and even government credit card information. Some of these were found at local stores and all but 15 were eventually recovered. Shortly after that the VA tightened their disposal policy and bought an enterprise license for Ontrack Data International Inc.'s DataEraser.
In another major blunder in March of this year, Providence Health System said thieves for the second time in 2006 have stolen laptops containing patient records. In two separate car break-ins, thieves took laptops containing records on a total of 122 hospice and home-care patients in Snohomish County, Wash. Earlier this year, a thief stole computer disks and tapes holding personal records on 365,000 patients across Oregon and Washington.
The most recent high profile privacy compromise was when the personal information of 26.5 million veterans was stolen from a home computer of the a VA employee who was not authorized to remove it from the office. Persoal information included birthdates, social security numbers, and even spousal personal information. According to the VA no medical records were compromised.
In May of this year, Ohio University announced to its students and former students that computers at the health center, containing records of 60,000 people, had been compromised by three seperate hacks. The world privacy forum announced that almost 250,000 to 500,000 consumers have had teir medical privacy compromised.
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2 comments:
Records should be stored in a drive that is accessed only by a few number of people or a security group chosen by the officers of the company... I also think Social security numbers/information should be stored in a separate program and patients with same names will be identified by a special numbering or coding... just a thought... Identity theft has been an ongoing problem specially when it comes to using the social security number of deceased people...
Hi Wil! Its been a while since you last posted anything.. Before the New Year comes i'd just like to inform you, I read from the Times that soon cloned meat will be sold in the market as it was "proven" safe... hmmm.... Im really not agreeing to this whole idea because I believe anything cloned will cause a problem later on... What's your idea on this...
Draft ruling by US watchdog approves cloned meat for sale
By Clive Cookson
Published: December 29 2006 02:00 | Last updated: December 29 2006 02:00
The prospect of food made from cloned animals moved significantly closer yesterday when the US government declared it to be as safe as produce from conventionally bred beasts.
The US Food and Drug Administration said meat and milk from clones of cattle, pigs and goats and their offspring could be sold in the US without special labelling.
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