Surveys indicate public supportive of EHRs, HIE despite privacy concerns

As EHR adoption increases and health information exchange (HIE) expands, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) wants to track public perceptions of privacy and security of health data. To that end, ONC conducted nationally representative surveys to determine concerns for privacy and security and how any fears impact patient-provider communication.

Three-quarters of respondents said they are very or somewhat concerned about the privacy of medical records while 69 percent said they are very or somewhat concerned about the security of medical records, said Vaishali Patel, PhD, MPH, ONC senior advisor, presenting the survey results at the Nov. 4 Health IT Policy Committee meeting.

Surveys were conducted in both 2012 and 2013. Support for EHRs and HIEs was consistent and relatively high despite potential privacy or security concerns and there was little change between the two surveys.

Only one in 10 people said they would withhold information because of privacy and security concerns. While six out of 10 people said they are concerned about providers sending data to other providers, seven out of 10, Patel said, said they support providers and want providers to share medical records despite their concerns.

Patel noted the survey asked about concerns for both fax and electronic transmission but there was little difference between the two.

“During this period of EHR adoption and growth, a majority of Americans do express concern but the concerns are not specific to electronic sharing of data.”