Most Small Healthcare Organizations Suffered Breaches

At least one hit almost all groups

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Small healthcare organizations, those with 250 employees or fewer, were extremely likely to be hit with a data breach of some kind in 2011.

A new study from the Ponemon Institute found that 91 percent of those organizations suffered at least one data breach, and 23 percent said they dealt with at least one instance of patient identity theft in that time, according to a report from Fierce Health IT. However, the reason for this problem seems fairly straightforward: 48 percent said that their organization spent less than 10 percent of its annual budget on data security.

However, there may be a growing realization about the connection between attention to security and the number of incidents, the report said.

"Suprisingly, only 30 percent [of respondents] agree that they have adequate resources to ensure that privacy and data security requirements are met," Ponemon Institute founder Larry Ponemon told the site.

Ondrej Krehel, chief information security officer for Identity Theft 911, has a blog about data breaches and the threats they can pose for consumers, particularly when it involves medical information.

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