These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,337 U.S. adults surveyed online between January 11 and 18, 2006 by Harris Interactive. This survey was designed in collaboration with Dr. Alan F. Westin, Professor of Public Law and Government Emeritus at Columbia University and a noted authority on current health privacy issues, especially those involving electronic health record programs.
Specifically the survey found:
- Seven in 10 (70 percent) U.S. adults agree that they are generally satisfied with the way doctors and hospitals handle personal health information in terms of protecting its confidentiality and security. One in five (20 percent) strongly agree with this, 50 percent somewhat agree and another 19 percent disagree. The remaining 11 percent are not sure
- By 63 to 25 percent, a majority agrees that increased use of computers to record and share patient medical records can be accomplished without jeopardizing proper patient privacy rights. One quarter (23 percent) strongly agrees with this
- A majority (60 to 27 percent) feels that existing federal and state health privacy protection laws provide a reasonable level of privacy for their health information
- A similar 63 to 27 percent of U.S. adults also agree that they would consent to have their medical records used for medical research as long as there were guarantees that no personally-identifying information would be released.
"This parallels the results of Harris-Westin surveys over the past decade in the consumer and employee privacy areas, where about 25 percent of the public consistently feels that their legitimate privacy rights are not being handled properly by business, employer, or government organizations," Westin notes.
However, many U.S. adults still have serious worries about how their medical records are obtained and used by organizations outside direct patient care. Half of adults (50 percent) believe that patients have lost control over how their medical records are used by organizations such as life insurers, employers and government health agencies. Three in 10 (31 percent) disagree and are not as concerned, while the remaining 19 percent are not sure.
Furthermore, there is a strong correlation between health conditions and privacy concerns. Among adults who indicate that their health is either only fair or poor (i.e., those who may be most in need of medical services), significantly more have concerns about the confidentiality and security about their health information. For example, 73 percent of those who report that their health is pretty good or excellent are generally satisfied with the way doctors and hospitals use personal health information. However, a smaller 60 percent of those who report their health is only fair or poor say they are satisfied with how their personal health information is used. A majority (55 percent) of those who indicate only fair or poor health agree that patients have lost control over how their medical records are obtained and used by organizations outside providing direct patient health care. This compares to the 49 percent who say that their health is pretty good or excellent.
Finally, on whether U.S. adults have withheld information about their personal life or health conditions from doctors and hospitals because they were concerned about how the information might be disclosed, over three- quarters (77 percent) of adults say that they have not withheld information. Nonetheless, a significant one in six (17 percent) say that they have withheld information, and this rises to 21 percent among those who are in only fair or poor health. Further, among a similar 21 percent who have the highest privacy concerns, 33 percent indicate that they have withheld information from health professionals. This compares to the nine percent among those with lowest privacy concern (28 percent).
"While these results continue to document majority concerns about how confidentiality and security will be handled in electronic health records programs, they also show that about a two-thirds majority are ready to accept the potential benefits of such EHR systems if solid privacy and security rules are applied," Westin commented. "However, about one quarter of the public remains skeptical and worried about such systemic computerization, and it will take highly robust and transparent new privacy and security programs to overcome these fears."
