Patients Who Don't Trust EHRs Withhold Information

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

A joint study shows patients who harbor some distrust of electronic health records are likely to withhold information from their doctors.

A recent study from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Dartmouth College, published by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA), found patients who distrust EHRs may be keeping information from their doctors in an effort to keep their data from being stored electronically.

iHealth Beat reports 13 percent of respondents noted they had withheld information from a healthcare provider because of concerns regarding security or privacy. “Electronic health record (EHR) systems are linked to improvements in quality of care, yet also privacy and security risks. Results from research studies are mixed about whether patients withhold personal information from their providers to protect against the perceived EHR privacy and security risks,” explain researchers.

Fierce EMR reports that, at first, researchers found no correlation between non-disclosure and the provider’s use of an EHR. However, when researchers factored in the patients’ global assessment of quality they found there was a positive link between the provider's use of an EHR and the patient's withholding of information.

“After accounting for global ratings of care, findings suggest that patients may non-disclose to providers to protect against the perceived EHR privacy and security risks. Despite evidence that EHRs inhibit patient disclosure, their advantages for promoting quality of care may outweigh the drawbacks.”

Researchers concluded, “Clinicians should leverage the EHR's value in quality of care and discuss patients’ privacy concerns during clinic visits, while policy makers should consider how to address the real and perceived privacy and security risks of EHRs.”