Comprehensive Risk Assessment of My Health Record and Health Policy

This report provides a comprehensive risk assessment of the My Health Record system, an electronic health record designed to store and share patient health information. The assessment identifies six key risks: security and privacy breaches, interoperability issues, incorrect data entry, usability challenges, data access by courts or tribunals, and software crashes. Each risk is evaluated for its impact and likelihood, with a risk matrix illustrating the severity of each issue. The report suggests mitigation strategies, such as enhanced firewalls, IT staff responsibility, healthcare provider verification, professional training, and ethical considerations for legal procedures. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of risk assessment in managing uncertainties and improving healthcare systems, specifically highlighting the need for proactive measures to address the identified risks associated with the My Health Record system to ensure data security, usability, and effective healthcare delivery. The report draws on relevant literature to support its findings and recommendations.

Running head: HEALTH SYSTEM AND POLICY
RISK ASSESSMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1RISK ASSESSMENT
My Health Record
'My Health Record' is an electronic health recorder that stores all the relevant
information and health data of the individual. It is highly secured that the individual can
access their record any point of time (Healthdirect.gov.au, 2020). It is very handy when one
needs to share their health information with others. This information can be shared either to a
physician, healthcare settings or any healthcare providers. Thus, it has become a national
digital health system. The major benefits that the individuals would be gaining easy access to
every document in a single platform or folder (Carroll & Butler-Henderson, 2017).
Healthcare provider or caregiver can easily have access to the information or health data of
the individuals. However, one can always change the mode of access whenever necessary.
In case of any urgency or medical emergencies, the individual can't store and
remember every detail of the medical documents or history. Therefore, having an information
store in this digital electronic record such as medicines list or test result would minimise the
pain of carrying every time (Hemsley et al., 2018). Thus, this digital health recorder is
considered as convenience as one can achieve notification on upcoming necessary saved
health-related activity. For security, there is a strict regulation that claims that individual can
control who can see their information and according to act upon it.
Risk Assessment
Sl
no
.
Risk Impact L C R Risk
treatments
Responsibili
ty

2RISK ASSESSMENT
1 Security and
Privacy
Leakage of
patient
health
informatio
n without
consent
4 4 4 Upgrading
with strong
firewalls and
effective
measures
The
government
agencies
2 Interoperabil
ity
Healthcare
providers
might find
it difficult
to install or
implement
3 2 1 Hire or give
responsibility
to the IT
staffs for the
implementati
on issues
IT
department
of healthcare
settings
3 Wrong entry
or data
migration
Adverse
effect on
health
outcome
3 5 3 Healthcare
provider can
verify with
the original
document in
the initial
entry of
health data
Healthcare
Provider
4 Usability It impacts
majorly on
the
healthcare
profession
als
4 4 3 Effective
training to
every
healthcare
professionals
for easy
usability of
the electronic
health record
Healthcare
leader

3RISK ASSESSMENT
5 Data
accessed by
court or
tribunal
Sharing of
health
informatio
n without
consent
4 3 3 Even for any
legal
procedure, it
would be
ethical
consideration
to take the
consent from
the
individual
Government
bodies
6 Crashing of
the software
Losing all
the health
informatio
n and data
3 5 4 Regular
updating of
the software
Government
bodies
Table 1: Risk identification table
Figure1: Risk Assessment Matrix
Source: (By author)
From the above table of risk assessment, there are total six risk element in the
implementation or usage of 'my health record.' Security and privacy, usability,
interoperability, usage of data by court or tribunal, crashing of software and wrong of data or
information were the major six factors or risks identified. The senior leaders or governing
1
2 3
4
6
5

4RISK ASSESSMENT
bodies of the 'my health record' needs to act upon the risks identified while implementing or
practising the electronic health record.
Figure 1 shows the risk assessment of each risk identified in the table. The different
colour code explains the complexity of the risks. The highest risks (red) are security and
privacy, usability and wrong data entry or information migration. These three risk elements
are higher in the risk and have more impact compare to other elements. Thus, these risks need
to be escalated to senior authority, and there must be effective strategy need to implement for
overcoming the issues. The next level of risks includes elements such as crashing of software,
data used by the court without consent and interoperability. These issues need to be informed
to the middle-level management as it is moderate.
Risk is defined or referred to those elements that may cause due to uncertainty or any
other factor caused by the external factor (Aven, 2016). As risk is unavoidable, and thus, it
has to be managed. Therefore, a risk assessment would help the effective management of the
risk. Risk assessment is an important and effective management tool that need to implement
or practice for identifying the limitation and helps in improving those drawbacks (NSW,
2012). It includes three stages: risk identification, risk analysis and risk evolution.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that for any organisation or
regulation, there can be uncertainties of risks. These risks can be identified and managed with
multiple tools and framework. Risk assessment is important as it helps in understanding the
loopholes and manage ways for improvement.

5RISK ASSESSMENT
References
Aven, T. (2016). Risk assessment and risk management: Review of recent advances on their
foundation. European Journal of Operational Research, 253(1), 1-13.
Carroll, J., & Butler-Henderson, K. (2017). MyHealthRecord in Australian primary health
care: an attitudinal evaluation study. Journal of medical systems, 41(10), 158.
Healthdirect.gov.au. (2020). About My Health Record. Retrieved 10 April 2020, from
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/my-health-record
Hemsley, B., McCarthy, S., Adams, N., Georgiou, A., Hill, S., & Balandin, S. (2018). Legal,
ethical, and rights issues in the adoption and use of the “My Health Record” by people
with communication disability in Australia. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental
Disability, 43(4), 506-514.
NSW Government. (2012). Risk Management Toolkit for NSW Public Sector Agencies (pp.
1-18). NSW Government. Retrieved from
http://nswtreasury.prod.acquia-sites.com/sites/default/files/pdf/TPP12-
03a_Risk_Management_toolkit_for_the_NSW_Public_Sector_-
_Executive_Guide.pdf