HSA520
Health Care Informatics and System Breaches
HSA520: Health Information Systems
Health Care Informatics and System Breaches
Since the improvement in information and communication technology it has helped in the
healthcare industry by replacing paper-based records with that of electronic health record
(EHRs) systems to help provide a better and more cost-efficient service to its customers.
EHRs can develop patient cooperation, enhance patient care, and always make patient
information available. With the use of smartphones and other devices to access health
information presents a higher risk for privacy breaches. Breaches occur when unauthorized
users access healthcare databases, due to human error, software vulnerabilities, and security
failures. This makes sensitive information available, which causes damage to protected health
information, resulting in disclosure, theft, or loss. (Seh, Zarour,… & Khan, 2020).
Factors contributing to the other organization breaches.
There was a breach that occurred at Pawnee County Memorial Hospital. This puts the
hospital at a risk of a breach and a high impact on information technology. The factors
contributing to this breach are:
Hacking,
Unauthorized access and disclosure of information,
Improper disposal of PHI and ePHI, and
Theft of sensitive information.
Since patients has access to their ePHI the hospital is at risk of getting sensitive
information hacked. No one other than authorized personnel and patients should have
access to patient information.
