Health Information Privacy and Security Framework: Supporting Electronic Medical Records in Healthcare Systems

Abstract

The need to record information regarding a patient has been considered as an old, but important issue within the medical arena. Recently, much progress has been noted in the process of collection, storage, and retrieval of patients‘ data, with more healthcare organizations moving towards paperless environment of electronic medical records (EMRs). However, only a handful of studies have looked into privacy and security issues associated with EMRs, as perceived by patients and healthcare providers. Such issues, if left unaddressed, may affect the quality of EMRs, the speed at which they are implemented and accepted by patients and providers, the ability for healthcare institutions to exchange patient information, as well as the quality of patient care and patient safety. As such, this article proposes a comprehensive and multidimensional framework of EMRs success in the healthcare sector. The framework developed in this study can be applied to evaluate and to measure the effectiveness of such EMRs.