Inspector General: Push for EMRs overlooks security issues

PBS NewsHour: Report: Push For Electronic Medical Records Overlooks Security Gaps
The Office of the Inspector General found "a lack of general [information technology] security controls during prior audits at Medicare contractors, State Medicaid agencies, and hospitals." The investigation audited computer security at seven large hospitals in different states, and found 151 major vulnerabilities, including unencrypted wireless connections, easy passwords, and even a taped-over door lock on a room used for data storage. The auditors classified 124 of the breeches were "high impact" — resulting in costly losses, injury or death. According to the report, "outsiders or employees at some hospitals could have accessed, and at one of the seven hospitals did access, systems and beneficiaries' personal data" (Clune, 5/17).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.