Although there have been many positive and beneficial changes in the field of healthcare over the past decade, problems still remain that can pose risks to public health and safety. In some cases, these advanced changes and innovations are the very cause of the mistakes and errors that can occur, threatening the health of patients and even putting their lives at risk. In addition, risks arise that their private information will be either revealed to the third parties or accidentally deleted. An example of this is the system of Electronic Medical Records, or EMRs. The problem that I regularly face in my clinical area can be defined as a combination of several unfavourable results of the use of this system. As a health professional working in a hospital setting, I am responsible for providing all patients with high quality medical care. However, I am not always able to ensure complete accuracy and security of my patients’ data during diagnosis and treatment delivery due to the security concerns resulted from the use of Electronic Medical Records.
Over the recent years, the use of the EMRs has increased significantly in most developed countries. In the US, physicians are reported to have almost quadrupled their use of EMRs, “from 19% in 2008 to 72% in 2016” (Honavar, 2020, p. 417). At the same time, countries like India are still struggling to introduce this system and use its full potential. Before discussing security issues associated with the use of EMRs, it should be stated that they do have a number of important advantages when compared to traditional paper records. For patients, they allow easier access to healthcare, as they are able to track their diagnosis and results, monitor treatment plans, and receive necessary reminders and suggestions. In addition, patients are always able to view the prescriptions and recommendations from their doctors.
EMRs also have a number of important advantages for clinics and health professionals. Compared to paper records, this system saves a significant amount of space, as the need to store and retrieve paper records is eliminated (Janett & Yeracaris, 2020). They also provide more opportunities in terms of designing, structuring, and restructuring workflows, which allows optimizing time and clinicians’ schedules. Since EMRs are kept in the electronic format, they also allow reducing operational costs that were associated with storing large amounts of paper records. They also facilitate physicians’ work in a variety of ways. For example, they help to track patients’ tests, preventing doctors from prescribing the same analyses. Avoiding duplicate tests also reduces costs significantly, since many of them can be quite expensive and uncomfortable for patients. Furthermore, EMRs can be connected to public health records systems, providing physicians with necessary patient data, such as information about communicable diseases or patients’ medical histories. Finally, EMRs provide health professionals and their patients with an easy and convenient way to communicate.
Despite the advantages mentioned above, there are several security issues connected with the use of EMRs. For example, they can jeopardize patients’ autonomy when the data regarding their medical history or other related private information are shared or linked without their permission or knowledge. To avoid potential risks and negative consequences, some patients can try to conceal their data or present false or inaccurate information to their physicians. This has happened in my practice and caused complications in the patients’ treatment, compromising their health. Although harmful and unnecessary, the patients’ concerns were not completely unfounded. During my work at this hospital setting, I have also encountered several cases of data theft. Despite the continuous improvement process, hacking incidents remain to be the main cause of EMR data breaches (“Healthcare data breach statistics,” 2022). Framed as a policy issue, this problem can be defined as the breach of security in Electronic Medical Records.
One of the solutions that can be suggested to address the problem of EMR security breaches is ensuring that all patient data is not only password protected, but also encrypted. Encryption in this case implies that data is encoded in a way that only provides access to authorized parties (Janett & Yeracaris, 2020). A specific encryption key is usually what defines how exactly the data needs to be decoded. This measure does not only concern the system of Electronic Medical Records itself, but also the mobile devices that are used to transmit confidential information (Sun et al., 2020). Studies have shown that a significant number of physicians write texts about their work and patients (Janett & Yeracaris, 2020). Therefore, mobile devices and other portable EMR systems also have to be encrypted to increase the security of patient data. Another possible solution to address this issue is conducting regular audit activities aimed to identify potential vulnerabilities of the system. To implement this measure, a professional audit team will keep track of activity logs and report weaknesses or errors.
The policy that can be suggested to resolve the issue of security breaches in Electronic Medical Records involves a comprehensive and perspective approach. As mentioned above, some of the measures that have to be introduced at the early stages of the developed policy are advanced data encryption and random routine audits. As some of the methods of data integrity protection, firewalls and advanced intrusion prevention software have to be installed on all devices used to transmit EMRs. Furthermore, the policy should include a set of strict regulations that will be discussed with hospital personnel to increase confidentiality (Chenthara et al., 2019). Thus, physicians and other health professionals will be required to always use their own IDs to log in the system and never share IDs with other individuals, including their colleagues. In addition, they will be required to pay specific attention when they leave the terminal and log off the system. If applied simultaneously and monitored carefully, these measures will present an effective policy to increase the confidentiality and security of patients’ digital records.
It can be concluded that, despite the many advantages of Electronic Medical Records, this system still poses challenges both in terms of patient safety and data security. EMRs facilitate communication between physicians and patients, allow saving space and reducing costs, and optimize workflows. Nevertheless, they have been reported to be vulnerable to various security breaches, such as malware and DDoS-attacks. Data leaks that result from these attacks can lead to negative consequences and pose risks to patient health and safety. To solve this issue, health care facilities need to introduce a comprehensive policy that addresses various aspects of the problem. The policy suggested by the present paper includes using advanced encryption methods, firewalls and intrusion protection software, as well as conducting routine audit sessions and instructing health professionals on the correct use of EMRs.
References
Chenthara, S., Ahmed, K., Wang, H., & Whittaker, F. (2019). Security and privacy-preserving challenges of e-Health solutions in cloud computing. IEEE Access, 7, 74361-74382. Web.
Healthcare data breach statistics. (2022). HIPAA Journal. Web.
Honavar, S. G. (2020). Electronic medical records – The good, the bad and the ugly. Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, 68(3), 417-418. Web.
Janett, R. S., & Yeracaris, P. P. (2020). Electronic medical records in the American health system: Challenges and lessons learned. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 25(4), 1293-1304. Web.
Sun, J., Ren, L., Wang, S., & Yao, X. (2020). A blockchain-based framework for electronic medical records sharing with fine-grained access control. PLOS ONE, 15(10), e0239946. Web.