Lack of Patient Data Privacy Challenges Patient Safety

Patient data privacy is emphasized due to increase in electronic health data processing. This paper highlights the importance of data privacy in healthcare and its connection to the European Union's (EU) General Data Protection Regulation, which aims to protect all EU citizens from privacy and data violations. The clinical environment is prone to hazards in information management, especially in care coordination, the management of patient data, and verbal communication. The Swiss cheese model was used to discuss the importance of patient data privacy based on statistics from a national patient safety incident registry. Patient identification proved an important factor leading to hazards that can cause severe harm to patients.