Hospitals Need Better Data Access—But Only If They Can Govern It

In the race to modernize, many hospitals have opened the digital floodgates, pushing for expanded access to data by clinicians, administrators, and staff. But in healthcare, where every decision may impact a life, access without governance is a risk hospitals can no longer afford.

Modern healthcare organizations face a stark paradox: how to make critical data readily accessible while ensuring that same data is accurate, protected, and properly governed. Information Governance (IG) provides the blueprint for resolving this conflict—not through one-time cleanups, but through operational change grounded in defensibility, automation, and accountability.

69% of What You're Storing Might Be ROT

According to the Compliance, Governance and Oversight Council (CGOC), a staggering 69% of the data stored by organizations is ROT—redundant, obsolete, or trivial. In healthcare, this often includes expired consent forms, duplicate medical records, and system logs that serve no ongoing purpose.

This isn’t just inefficient—it’s dangerous. Duplicate records alone cost providers $100 each on average due to wasted resources, delays in care, and potential clinical errors like administering incorrect medication or failing to flag allergies. Worse still, Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 60% of data breaches were caused by internal human error, a significant jump from previous years and a stark reminder of how disorganized or poorly managed data systems can expose organizations to preventable incidents.

Without governance, hospitals are flying blind.

Stop Thinking About Cleanup—Start Thinking About Continuity

Hospitals often treat information governance as a project—purging file rooms ahead of a move, digitizing documents for a new system, or organizing records to meet audit requirements. But unless governance is continuous, the clutter returns and the risk compounds.

Healthcare leaders need to shift their mindset from one-time remediation to an embedded governance model. The most successful organizations are already doing this by focusing on three foundational strategies:

1.      Centralization and Visibility

Fragmented records systems are a common and costly issue. Data is often scattered across EHR platforms, cloud systems, off-site storage, and even legacy paper files. When there’s no centralized inventory or visibility into where records are stored, retention schedules can’t be enforced and legal holds can’t be confidently applied.

Centralization begins with mapping all data sources and linking them into a single, searchable platform. KPMG notes that centralized classification schemes are essential for defensible retention and compliance. A centralized IG dashboard allows hospitals to:

• Identify records that are past their retention date and eligible for destruction

• Locate high-risk data subject to litigation or compliance holds

• Benchmark storage costs and reduce third-party vendor dependency

If you don’t know what you have, you can’t govern it. And if you can’t govern it, you can’t trust it!

2.      Technology as a Force Multiplier

Digitization alone is not governance. In fact, blindly digitizing every piece of paper can balloon costs and make things worse. Smart hospitals use technology to prioritize, index, and govern—not just store.

For example, a healthcare organization can avoid unnecessary scanning costs by first applying a pre-scanning defensibility model that prioritizes pre-identifying and securely destroying unnecessary materials based on a defensible records retention schedule, and ensuring that only high-value or active-use files are digitized. These efforts can and should be supplemented by using metadata tagging and intelligent classification tools and automating the coding of retention periods, hold status, and record types.

When records are structured, searchable, and governed by policy, you don’t just find information faster—you reduce risk and create a foundation for analytics, AI, and better decision-making.

3.      Continuous Governance

In healthcare, the stakes are too high for a “set it and forget it” approach. IG must be ongoing, adaptable, and owned across departments.

This includes:

• Regular reviews to purge expired records

• Cross-functional coordination between Legal, Compliance, IT, and Clinical Operations

• Self-audit workflows to flag ROT and policy violations

• Trigger-based destruction workflows for employee exits or site closures

For instance, during a transition to a new EHR, a health system can build retention and hold codes directly into the file migration process—ensuring that records meet legal and operational requirements before being moved.

This kind of built-in governance prevents duplication, reduces liability, and avoids the disruption of regulatory non-compliance.

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

According to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a healthcare data breach is $9.77 million—still the highest of any industry, despite a modest decline from the previous year. This figure underscores how healthcare remains uniquely vulnerable due to the sensitivity and scope of its data.

And that doesn’t even include the reputational damage, patient safety risks, and clinical inefficiencies stemming from bad data.

Consider this: Nearly half of employees (47%) report their organization’s filing systems are confusing or ineffective (Adobe). For hospitals, this confusion can lead to missing allergy warnings, incorrect billing, and even delayed diagnoses.

IG isn’t just about compliance. It’s about care – and saving lives.

Empower Your People with the Right Data—And the Right Guardrails

True data democratization doesn’t mean giving everyone access to everything. It means giving people the data they need, in the format they need it, when they need it—without compromising integrity, privacy, or compliance.

This requires not just technology, but training. When departments like HR, Patient Accounting, and Legal understand how storage decisions affect compliance, cost, and clinical care, governance becomes a shared responsibility.

IG professionals can help organizations effectively find the answers to critical questions like:

• Can our staff locate patient records quickly during registration

• Do we know which records are subject to HIPAA, litigation holds, or disposal triggers?

• Are our storage and access practices defensible in an audit?

When every team has access to accurate, timely, and well-governed information, hospitals can shift from reactive cleanup to proactive care.

From Storage to Stewardship

Information governance is no longer optional for healthcare providers—it’s essential. With increasing regulatory scrutiny, shrinking margins, and rising patient expectations, hospitals can’t afford data chaos.

The time to act is now. Start with visibility. Embed defensibility. Build for continuity.

Because in healthcare, good governance doesn’t just reduce risk. It saves lives.