Health Information Management

NAHIT report: Paper records are more vulnerable

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, January 16, 2006

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Paper health records are more vulnerable to a variety of security threats-including loss, theft, destruction, and tampering-than electronic health records, according to a report recently published by the National Alliance for Health Information Technology (NAHIT).

The NAHIT report, "A Day in the Life of a Medical Record: Lifting the veil on the security of today's paper-based environment," compared paper and electronic health records systems by surveying the flow of medical charts in three facilities: a hospital and community medical clinic using paper records, and a hospital using an electronic system.

The report follows the paper records throughout a day and compares the risks involved to those of electronic records. It concludes that paper records are

  • more easily tampered with
  • more easily damaged by floods and other natural disasters
  • more easily lost

Click here to read the report.



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