The British Medical Association says that a policy at the South Warwickshire Hospitals Trust in the United Kingdom under which staff can share access cards to obtain health records could put patient security at risk, BBC News reports (BBC News, 1/30).
The trust authorized the sharing of access cards in an effort to reduce the time, averaging 60 to 90 seconds, it takes for staff to access the hospital's patient administration system, E-Health Insider reports. The trust in a statement said that the two computers only are used by clinicians and are kept in a secure area of its accident and emergency department (E-Health Insider, 1/30).
A British Medical Association spokesperson said, "Sharing access not only puts at risk the security of the system but also disrupts the audit trail which tracks who has accessed parts of the record."
The trust plans to review its policy when log-in times are improved, according to a hospital trust spokesperson (BBC News, 1/30).