Study in The American Journal of Managed Care® Takes a Closer Look at What Types of Hospitals Have Data Breaches
As major healthcare cyberattacks grab headlines, researchers report the common characteristics of US hospitals that experience these attacks. A more common but less visible problem is poor disposal of paper records and films, this study finds.
A study in the new issue of
Researchers led by
Gabriel, a former economist at the
While OCR tracks breaches affecting more than 500 people—and fines health systems over violations—it took Gabriel’s team to pore over the records and describe what kinds of hospitals are more (or less) likely to experience a breach.
Laptops emerged as a major source of data loss during the study period, far outstripping electronic health records (EHRs) in terms of numbers of breaches. There were 51 incidents of lost or stolen laptops affecting 380,699 people. By comparison, there were 19 EHR breaches affecting 44,805 people.
Network server breaches rarely occur, but when they do the effects are vast: 10 breaches in the study period affected 4.6 million people.
Among other findings:
- During the 7-year study period, 215 breaches affecting 500 or more people took place in 185 nonfederal acute care hospitals; 30 hospitals had more than one breach, and one hospital had four breaches.
- Teaching hospitals and pediatric hospitals were more likely to experience breaches.
- Larger hospitals (more than 400 beds) were more likely to have breaches than small (less than 100 beds) or medium hospitals (100 to 399 beds).
- Investor-owned hospitals (for-profit) were less likely to have a data breach.
The authors noted that hospitals were spending large amounts during 2009-2016 upgrading their information technology systems to meet EHR requirements, with less spent on security. The authors noted the shifting threats to healthcare systems—hackers are no longer interested in selling data, but threaten to shut down systems unless they are paid a ransom.
“Routine audits required by cyber-insurance coverage may help healthcare facilities recognize, and repair, their vulnerabilities before a breach occurs,” the authors conclude.
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