And over there, I'm demonlapin (925).
Plugging random flash drives in is entirely safe.
Assuming there are no zero-day exploits you haven't yet found.
Within the doctor's office the information's already secured.
I wouldn't be too sure about that. Doctors are not security experts, and neither are most of the people they hire.
S/MIME and/or PGP encryption built into every major e-mail client
How many average people do you think actually have an email client, as opposed to using webmail?
adding it to a file on the patient's USB flash drive
You don't want random flash drives being plugged into the networks that store health info.
e-mailing to the patient
And you really don't want it going out over the Internet in plain text.
it's not that complicated
If you think it's not that complicated, then you do not understand the magnitude of the problem.
The mess in Atlanta was caused by incompetence and political cowardice.
I'm not inclined to disagree with you on Atlanta's governance, but 4 AM is pretty late to sound the call to shut down a city. I go to work at 6:15 and don't listen to the news before I'm in the car. Realistically, you can cancel things the night before - or not at all. The uncertainty regarding this storm was enormous. Hurricanes give you time to do things - much more than eight hours.
Arithmetic is being able to count up to twenty without taking off your shoes. -- Mickey Mouse