According to a recent article in Becker’s Hospital Review, just as patients are becoming more trusting about electronic health records, that trust is being violated.
Two employees at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha were fired in September after they accessed the EMR of an Ebola patient being treated there.
“Unfortunately, I think this likely happens close to every day,” Matthew Fisher, JD, an associate with Mirick, O’Connell, DeMallie & Lougee, said in an email interview. “Record snooping is coming up as a pervasive issue and one that can go on for years without it necessarily being discovered.”
This news is unfortunate — and slightly terrifying — for patients, who are now becoming more open and trusting toward EMRs. A survey from earlier this year showed 86 percent of patients used their EMR at least once in 2013, and patients with online access to their records have a higher level of trust in their physician and medical staff.
