April 2010

Maintaining Patient Privacy and Security with an EHR

With the emergence of electronic health records, patient privacy and medical information safety has become a very important issue in the healthcare industry, and many new policies, procedures and practices have been developed to protect the privacy and security of EHRs. As a result of some of these new policies, medical information in an EHR is now protected in many ways. Below are a few ways that patient information is protected:

• There are new laws in place to protect information in medical records
• Only doctors who need your medical information will have access to it
• Medical information in a patient’s EHR will be protected by a password so not everyone can see it
• The computer can track anyone who has looked at a patient’s medical information
• Doctors and staff will be thoroughly trained on how to keep patient information safe and private

In many healthcare settings around the country, and particularly here at Chicago Family Health Center, EHRs will soon be a reality. An EHR will offer better privacy and security protections than a paper record and patient information will become more readily available when needed. EHR privacy and security are very important and we want to make sure that all CFHC employees are well informed about how to maintain a patient’s EHR privately and securely. Visit the links below for more information about EHR security and patient confidentiality.

Security & Privacy of Electronic Health Records

EHR security and privacy