Digital medical records are bringing the health care industry into the 21st century. But concerns about privacy issues with the increased access that accompanies digitization are lagging behind adoption of the technology.
The use of electronic medical records can be a boon for patients and providers. The ease of sharing between pharmacies, doctors’ offices, hospitals, primary care providers and specialists, and others in the health care complex can make patient care more efficient and help keep costs down.
Errors in record keeping can also quickly proliferate through the system, with sometimes deadly consequences. The family of one woman who died after a critical medication was inadvertently dropped from her medical record are suing Abington Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania, according to a Bloomberg story.
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged that its medical records system was incorrectly sending prescription information to the wrong patient’s files, forcing the agency to shut down its system for three months. The problem was discovered when a prescription for an erectile dysfunction drug was found in a female patient’s records.
There are also thousands of privacy complaints filed each year related to electronic records that are inappropriately shared without patient’s consent. In Europe, patients have greater protections from unapproved sharing of their records and enjoy greater control over their medical data.