The Common Ways Dentists Cause Patient Data Breaches

The loss of patient data is a serious matter and can leave a dentist facing thousands of dollars in HIPPA fines. The good news is, many of the oversights that lead to violations are easily avoidable. In this clip, Pat Little, D.D.S., F.A.G.D., C.F.E., CEO, and Founder of Dental Risk Concepts and Prosperident, describes the common oversights he sees dentists making that often lead to the loss of patient data.

Video Transcript (Modified for Readability)

“More common things that I see in a dental office where breaches can be even more common is taking laptops of patient information home with them, backing up to a hard drive. And I’m a big believer in backing up to the cloud, but I still like external hard drives.

Mobile phones, a lot of times they have texts to patients or information on mobile phones.

The problem is that if they’re not encrypted and secured properly, if they go home and their car is broken into, or they’re lost, or they’re dropped, or they’re left at one of the team member’s homes all of a sudden someone can get to that device and get all kinds of patient data. And we don’t want that at all.

RELATED: More Advice from Pat Little, D.D.S.

· The First Thing Dentists Should Do to Stop Identity Theft

· Why Dental Charts are Especially Appealing to Identity Thieves

· How Patient Data Gets Stolen in Dental Practices

It’s also amazing when I go into offices, just how many times I see open charts. But even passwords that are stuck on sticky notes that are sitting right up on the monitor. Not secure at all.

I’ve seen reception areas where the office manager or someone working up front had to step out for just a second to go to the back and sitting right within reach are patient charts. Or, sometimes, their personal cell phones. And we have seen video surveillance of people coming in to an unattended front desk, literally reaching over and picking up either charts or some sort of electronic device and then walking out.

Those are breaches and huge HIPPA fines just waiting to happen.”

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