Healthcare organizations often prioritize protecting patients' electronic health records, which leaves the organizations vulnerable to cyberattacks and puts patients at risk, as found in a new Independent Survey Evaluators report, according to Healthcare IT News.
Here are five things to know:
1. By prioritizing patient information, organizations often do not work to combat the actual cybersecurity risks that directly impact patient health, such as the infiltration on an active medical device.
2. The report found many organizations used vendor products that were not appropriate for their organization, and the organizations did not use the systems correctly.
3. Many of the organizations' leaders handled unsophisticated threats and left openings for attackers to get into information systems.
4. All of the hospitals in the report failed to address modern security issues, partly due to insufficient funding.
5. Healthcare organizations' emphasis on prevention efforts, "have little value with regard to personally identifiable information or personal health information – the assets hospitals strive to protect most – yet they have direct consequences with regard to patient health," the authors concluded.
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