74% of Americans using electronic medical records, yet few concerned with privacy

As you likely see every day on the job, access to medical records is more readily available than ever before…but most patients aren’t concerned about medical record privacy. Are you?

Nearly three out of four Americans see physicians who use electronic medical records. Of those patients, very few are concerned about the privacy of those records.

These findings come from the latest NPR-Truven Health Analytics Health Poll, which polled more than 3,000 American adults. While access to records is more readily available than ever before to different groups (including employers, hospitals and doctors), few are worried about the privacy of their records.

Of those polled, only 11 percent said they had privacy concerns related to their doctors, and 14 percent had concerns relating to hospitals. At the high end, 16 percent were concerned about the access health insurers had to their records.

Additionally, the majority of Americans are not concerned with their medical information being shared anonymously. The study showed two-thirds of Americans are willing to share their information with researchers provided any identifying information is removed.

Are you concerned with the privacy of your medical records? Do patients express concerns to you? Let us know in the comments below!