Study: Better staff training could protect EMR privacy

If providers do a better job of training their staff, privacy breaches will be far less common, according to a new report issued by the AHIMA. Experts quoted in the report note that the recent rash of incidents in which records of celebrities like George Clooney and Britney Spears were accessed demonstrates how easy it is to get to such records. While institutions usually can find out who accessed what record, that's after the incident takes place. In some cases, far too many people may have access to EMRs, and it's in a provider's best interests to impose tougher access restrictions, the authors said. Ultimately, however, technical fixes like this can't do the job by themselves. Providers need to remind employees regularly what privacy rules are, how to address them, and what the consequences will be if they don't, experts quoted in the report contended.

To learn more about the report:
- read this Healthcare IT News piece [1]

Related Articles:
UCLA staff accused of viewing Britney Spears' records [2]
Park Nicollet suspends employees for EMR snooping [3]
Union fights suspensions for workers viewing star's records [4]
Overapplying and misapplying HIPAA is common [5]