Survey: Digital Medical Records Risky

Four percent of Americans say they believe that they or a family member has had medical records either lost or stolen, a U.S. poll indicates.

The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive, found that 69 percent of adults say they have either read or heard about medical records with personal health information being lost or stolen from doctor’s offices, clinics, hospitals, health insurers, employers or government agencies.

When asked whether computerized or paper medical records are more easily stolen, 47 percent of respondents say they believe computerized records are at higher risk of theft, while about one in six say they think that paper records may be lost or stolen most often.

For this Harris Poll we were trying to measure perceptions among the public of having suffered a loss or theft of medical records or health information from health-information holders, said Dr. Alan Westin, who helped develop the poll.

The poll of 2,454 U.S. adults was conducted online between June 9 and June 16. The margin of error was not reported.