Abstract
The health care industry has benefitted from its employees' ability to view patient data, but at the same time this access allows for patient's health care records and information to be easily tampered with or stolen. Access to and transmission of patient data may improve care, increase delivery time of services and reduce health care costs, security of that information may be jeopardized due to the innocent sharing of personal and non-personal data with the wrong person. In this study, we surveyed employees of different size hospitals in various regions of the state who were willing to share their passwords. Our findings indicate that employees need further or additional training in their awareness surrounding password creation.
Highlights
Health care records generally include, but are not necessarily limited to, individual patient’s health history, diagnosis, laboratory results, treatments, and the doctor’s progress notes
The security and privacy of health care information is protected by HITECH (Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), requiring health care agencies to do everything possible to protect their information
The HITECH Act enhances the security and privacy provisions as well as the penalties contained in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act): implications for the adoption of health information technology, HIPAA, and privacy and security issues, 2009)
Summary
Health care records generally include, but are not necessarily limited to, individual patient’s health history, diagnosis, laboratory results, treatments, and the doctor’s progress notes. A patient’s personal information, such as address, phone number, and social security number, are all items that may be included and accessible to some or all health care employees. These records are vulnerable to security breaches and theft. The HITECH Act enhances the security and privacy provisions as well as the penalties contained in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act): implications for the adoption of health information technology, HIPAA, and privacy and security issues, 2009) This new law requires patients be notified in the event of a security breach
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