Healthcare and security: Understanding and evaluating the risks

Abstract

Part of the job of healthcare providers is to manage client information. Most is routine, but some is sensitive. For these reasons physicians' offices provide a rich environment for understanding complex, sensitive information management issues as they pertain to privacy and security. In this paper we present findings from interviews and observations of 19 physician's offices in rural-serving southwest Virginia. Our work presents examples of what might be labeled as security violations. In particular, we found that the tensions between work practice and security, and between electronic and paper records, resulted in issues that need broader discussion in relation to the role of the social in the management of patient information. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.