By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    improving patient experience
    6 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction Within Hospitals
    December 1, 2021
    degree for healthcare job
    What Are The Health Benefits Of Having A Degree?
    March 9, 2022
    custom software development is changing healthcare
    Digital Customer Journey Mapping and its Importance for Healthcare
    July 21, 2022
    Latest News
    Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
    May 16, 2025
    Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
    May 16, 2025
    Choosing the Right Supplement Manufacturer for Your Brand
    May 1, 2025
    Engineering Temporary Hospitals for Extreme Weather
    April 24, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Can Thinking Younger Make You Live Longer?
    April 20, 2011
    Image
    Obesity’s Outlook Unchanged
    June 13, 2011
    When It’s An Emergency Elderly Not Treated As Well in Hospitals
    July 16, 2011
    Latest News
    Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
    May 18, 2025
    The Critical Role of Healthcare in Personal Injury Recovery: A Comprehensive Guide for Victims
    May 14, 2025
    The Backbone of Successful Trials: Clinical Data Management
    April 28, 2025
    Advancing Your Healthcare Career through Education and Specialization
    April 16, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Helping Patients Protect Their Own Personal Health Information
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Business > Hospital Administration > Helping Patients Protect Their Own Personal Health Information
eHealthHospital AdministrationMedical RecordsTechnology

Helping Patients Protect Their Own Personal Health Information

Anne Weiler
Last updated: October 1, 2014 8:11 am
Anne Weiler
Share
6 Min Read
Patient Record on Parking
SHARE

Last week I was leaving a meeting at a large hospital when I saw a patient record sitting on top of the payment machine in the parking garage. Incredibly this is the second time that I’ve seen documents left here. People put them down when they pull out their wallets to pay for parking and then walk away.

Last week I was leaving a meeting at a large hospital when I saw a patient record sitting on top of the payment machine in the parking garage. Incredibly this is the second time that I’ve seen documents left here. People put them down when they pull out their wallets to pay for parking and then walk away.

Patient Record on ParkingThe information the patients left behind included treatment plan instructions – so you can be pretty sure they are not doing their follow up home care – but worse than that it contained a schedule of future appointments with the patient’s name, date of birth, and social security number. Yes, you read that right: a perfect package for anyone practicing identity theft. This was all on a page that was printed directly from the EMR. The DOB and SSN were probably included on the record to verify that the information was for the correct patient, but this could be verified by asking the patient without printing it on a schedule of appointments.

So – first things first – I took the paper records back into the hospital. But afterwards it got me thinking about information protection and privacy, and in particular about the many people who still think that a paper print out is more secure than the cloud.

More Read

Drawing an Infographic Line on Healthcare’s Future
A Healthcare Data Pro’s Innovation Wish List
Electronic Medical Records are Super Cool!
The Revolutionary Advent Of Precision Medicine In Cancer Treatment
9 Medical Apps That Everyone Should Know About

Although concerns about information protection and privacy are valid, many of the major HIPAA breaches of the last few years have had nothing to do with the cloud and usually are related to human error and not great security practices.

A few examples:

  • Laptops that have patient records on them are stolen. This seems to be one of the most frequent reasons for breaches.
  • A photocopier that had patient data stored on its hard drive and was resold from a hospital to CBS news without the hard drive being cleared.
  • The paper patient records of a retiring physician were unceremoniously dumped in her driveway.

Good protection of patient information is important whether that information is in the cloud, on an internal computer or system, or on paper. HIPAA regulations encourage building good encrypted software; however we also need to have safeguards to protect against human error.

If patient information were in the cloud, the patient would either access the information through a secure portal, email, or application on their mobile device. He or she would then authenticate themselves to receive the information, and would not need to worry about accidentally forgetting their treatment plans sitting on a parking payment machine.

While patients expect to be able to interact with their healthcare providers through portals and mobile applications in the same way they interact with their banks, many healthcare CIOs we’ve encountered are still extremely wary of cloud-based systems. Financial services is another heavily regulated industry that has been able to successfully move to the cloud to better serve its customers.

Wellpepper is a cloud-based application, which in the healthcare world, makes us a business associate and on the hook for any breaches of patient health information. On the hook means that we need to sign a HIPAA agreement with any organization and we have liability for breaches of information. This is a job we take very seriously and we do our utmost to protect all information that flows through Wellpepper. This includes encrypting information at rest and in transit, ensuring strong passwords, and conducting audits of our system as well as making sure we are well-insured.

With Wellpepper, we provide the same level of encryption and safeguards to the patient’s own device as we do on the clinical devices. Information is not stored locally so if a device is lost or stolen there is much lower risk than in the laptop examples. Patient can do whatever they like with their own data. If I want to post my x-rays on the lamppost in-front of my house I can do that. However, that doesn’t mean that a healthcare organization should facilitate me in sharing my personal health information, which is actually significantly easier with paper-based systems than cloud based.

Yes this information would have been transferred over the Internet which could leave it open for hacking but a secure cloud system is no less, and sometimes more secure than internal IT systems which are also vulnerable. The key is to ensure that everyone in the chain, from internal IT to external partners, and finally to the providers and the patients understands the importance of protecting health data, and has the tools they need to do so, whether that’s on paper, online, or in the cloud.

TAGGED:HIPAApatient privacy
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share
By Anne Weiler
Follow:
Anne Weiler is CEO and co-founder of Wellpepper, a clinically-validated and award winning platform for patient engagement that enables health systems to track patient outcomes in real-time against their own protocols and personalize treatment plans for patients. Wellpepper patients are over 70% engaged. Prior to Wellpepper, Anne was Director of Product Management at Microsoft Corporation.

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

Clinical Expertise
Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
Health care
May 18, 2025
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Health
May 15, 2025
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Health
May 15, 2025
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction heart treatment
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction
Cardiology
May 13, 2025

You Might also Like

Artificial IntelligenceHealth careNews

Are Cybersecurity Threats The Main Hurdle For Big Data In Healthcare?

December 18, 2018
medical software
Technology

How Medical Spa Software Is Revolutionizing Holistic Healthcare

November 1, 2023
Readmission Revolving Door
BusinessFinanceHospital Administration

7 Ways to Improve Your Readmission Rates

June 9, 2014
denied medical claim
BusinessFinanceHospital Administration

Reducing Medical Denials Equals Increased Revenue

October 10, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?