Recent news of data breaches involving the health information of celebrities like Farrah Fawcett, Britney Spears and Maria Shriver has cast a spotlight on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the difficulties of keeping patient data secure in the digital age. While you may be tempted to shrug off those high-profile cases — thinking, "That couldn't happen at my facility" — the reality is tens of thousands of patient records have been compromised so far this year, according to the Privacy Rights Clearing-house (www.privacyrights.org), in breaches occurring at both large hospital systems and smaller medical centers across the country.