Becker's Hospital Review

49 CIO / HEALTH IT Hackers Breach Mass General Vendor, Compromise 4,300 Records By Akanksha Jayanthi M assachusetts General Hospital in Boston is notifying patients of a privacy incident after learning hackers accessed the electronic files of a third-party vendor. Patterson Dental Supply supplies dental practice manage- ment software for Massachusetts General Hospital's dental practice. The hospital learned on Feb. 8 that an unau- thorized individual accessed PDSI's files, some of which included information on MGH's dental practice patients. Potentially compromised information includes names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. Some files included date and type of dental appointment, dental provider name and medical record number. Boston Business Journal reports the incident affected approxi- mately 4,300 patients. In its notification, MGH said the privacy incident did not involve any unauthorized access to the hospital's files or systems. Though the hospital learned of the breach in February, law enforcement required the hospital to wait to inform patients and the public until it had finished its investiga- tion, according to MGH's notification. The hospital said PDSI has taken steps to enhance the security of its systems. n Do Physicians Really Experience a Satisfaction 'J-Curve' With EHRs? By Max Green T here's a school of thought about EHR adoption that suggests physicians experience an initial decrease in their positive perceptions of the technology, but over time those levels creep back up and ultimately surpass their pre-implementation perceptions. But does that J-curve actual- ly exists for EHRs? A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association says no. "[W]e did not find evidence for a J-curve pattern with re- spect to positive perceptions eventually exceeding baseline measures," the authors concluded. "Some measures followed a U-curve (returned to baseline), or flatlined, while most fol- lowed an L-curve (fell and remained below baseline)." The study is based on a prospective longitudinal survey of Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan Health System physi- cians over the course of two years, from when they dropped their homegrown CareWeb EHR, for Epic's. Although all physicians received training on the new system and the sys- tem "invested substantial resources developing customized content," according to the paper, the only significant increase over baseline perception after two years of the new EHR was for documenting while in the exam room with patients. "Future research is warranted to determine if positive per- ceptions eventually surpass baseline, and what interventions can help physicians use EHRs more effectively," the authors concluded. n BECKER'S CEO + CFO ROUNDTABLE november 7-9, 2016 swissotel, chicago Call 1.800.417.2035 or email registration@beckershealthcare.com KEYNOTES BY DR. RONALD DEPHINHO, DR. CHARLES W. SORENSON, DR. RICHARD GILFILLAN, CATHERINE JACOBSON, WARNER THOMAS & JONATHAN BUSH

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