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HEALTHeLINK™

Patient Confidentiality is Very Important

HEALTHeLINK takes the issue of patient confidentiality very seriously.

In addition to actively training staff in the HEALTHeLINK policies, HEALTHeLINK continually audits user activity to assure compliance with the policies governing access to patient data. These audits include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Access of family members’ medical records 
  • Access to the medical records of prominent political, business, and sports figures 
  • Access made to a patient’s record by an emergency department physician using the “Break the Glass” function. 
  • Various audits of the patient consent process to confirm the validity of consent forms and that the patient’s wishes have been accurately reflected in the system. 

The following are the audit results for the most recent month.

January 2024

Total Consented Patients – 1,560,694

Cumulative patient consent statistics:
Patients who have selected a consent status of “Yes” – 1,517,712
Patients who have selected a consent status of “No, except in an emergency” – 25,583
Patients who have selected a consent status of “No, including in an emergency” – 17,399

Consent audit results for the month:
Total patient consents processed – 22,464
Percentage invalid – 3%

System access audit results for the month:
Identified potential non-compliant uses of the exchange – 10
Break the glass audits – 213