U.S. residents fear lack of EMR confidentiality

While most U.S. residents like the idea of having EMRs, they're concerned that their privacy won't be protected, according to a new survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

More than half of respondents (55 percent) said that they felt it was extremely or very important for health care providers to use electronic records. Meanwhile, 24 percent said it was somewhat important for their providers to use EMRs, 7 percent not too important and 9 percent not important at all. Also, 43 percent of survey respondents said they would be extremely or very likely to access their health records and personal health information online, while only 21 percent reported that they weren't likely to do this.

However, the survey also found that only 12 percent of respondents were confident or extremely confident that their electronic health information would remain confidential, while 62 percent said they aren't confident that their EMRs would remain private.

To learn more about this survey:
- read this iHealthBeat piece [1]

Related Articles:
Study: EHR adoption held back by multiple issues [2]
Study: Consumers say EMR benefits outweigh privacy risks [3]
Privacy concerns slow EMR push [4]