Investigating the Functional Model EHR Security Safeguards in the HIS of Tabriz university of medical sciences

A safe environment for establishing an electronic health record is one of the priorities of Ministry of Health for all hospitals in Iran. The purpose of this study was to determine security standards, and to evaluate the hospital information systems according to that standards. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Ten teaching hospitals with a hospital information system which were affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences were evaluated. The data were collected by using a self-constructed checklist according to the Functional Model of HER, and the interviews with the hospitals IT authorities. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16. The information infrastructure part of EHR functional model consists seven major parts, and security is one of them in which nine sub functions have been defined. The total rate for all security standards was 3/84 ±0/59. The higher rate was for authorization sub function (4/47±0/49), and the lower rate was for patient access management sub function (2/20±0/63). There was a significant relationship between the components rate of security part except for secure data exchange (P=0/002). Considering the low rate of patient access management, it is recommended that HIS users and venders take into account this sub function besides their attention to all sub functions of EHR functional model.