HIMSS Survey Shows Breaches Are Common

This year's results show that 23% of responding organizations have had some sort of a security breach in the past year. And that's a big number.

The survey, sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, included only 398 self-selected respondents who filled out the form online in December and January. They represent 270 organizations that operate nearly 700 hospitals. About two-thirds were CIOs.

Breach prevention, HIPAA compliance and audit preparation all highlight the need for a comprehensive information security strategy and a detailed risk assessment. 

So nearly a quarter of CIOs and others who volunteered for an anonymous survey said they've had personal experience with a breach. Let's hope they've now got a robust breach notification mechanism in place.

In other findings, 34% said the threat of an internal breach was their top security concern. That makes me wonder how many of the breaches the surveyed executives' hospitals experienced turned out to be from inside the organization.

Other top security concerns were compliance with HIPAA security regulations and potential federal security audits.

It seems to me that breach prevention, HIPAA compliance and audit preparation all highlight the need for a comprehensive information security strategy and a detailed risk assessment.