Data Privacy in Healthcare: Compliance and Security

HIPAA is an important consideration with regard to nearly every aspect of operations at any healthcare entity. Compliance and security drive the wheel for everything from checking in patients to providing them access to their medical records. When you are working in the healthcare industry, you need to maintain HIPAA in every step of your daily workflows.

This is why HIPAA-compliant phone systems are so critical to the longevity, security, and well-being of any healthcare system. You cannot hope to protect patient confidentiality without a quality phone system that is built with HIPAA in mind. There are other compliance and security requirements that healthcare systems need to be aware of, and we will discuss the factors that are most important in this guide.

Compliance and Security in Healthcare

Compliance and security in the healthcare business is based on some fundamental requirements. Patient care that is secure, safe, and private in nature is promised to everyone who walks through the doors of any healthcare business location around the country. Without these factors in place, businesses can expose patients to a lack of care, a lack of privacy, and even poor healthcare outcomes.

HIPAA’s Privacy Rule created a national standard that protects individuals’ medical records and health information from a variety of threats and actions. The rule also gives individuals the right to access their protected information and the right to grant other people access to this information via a valid authorization. HIPAA has changed the healthcare reality to ensure that it is patient-focused, secure, and private.

 Compliance

Compliance with HIPAA and various other legal necessities is key for businesses in the healthcare space. Compliance with HIPAA means treating all patient information as PHI and following the legal requirements for how information is dispersed, stored, and interacted with. Patient information is not available to anyone who wishes to see it. Necessity drives the determination of who can see patient information in all circumstances, in any kind of care facility in the US.

Security

Healthcare organizations have to promise patients that their private information is protected adequately so that other people, other entities, and bad actors cannot access it when they should not. Security is becoming an increasingly complex and technical aspect of management of healthcare businesses. There have been plenty of high-visibility hacker attacks on healthcare organizations that have been all over the news in recent years, and most of these attacks come down to a lack of security and a lack of attention to potential threats.

 Trust

Healthcare is based entirely on trust. Patients need to be able to trust their care providers, and they also need to be able to trust the business that employs their doctor. Without trust, there is no possibility of successful patient-doctor relationships. Protecting the information of your patients and ensuring that they can feel secure in your attention to detail with regard to compliance can go a long way toward building lasting trust.

Transparency

Transparent healthcare means providing patients with information about how their data is collected and used, how their data can be disclosed, and making it clear that they have a right to and control over their own information. This is a huge departure from decades of healthcare standards that were lax, sloppy, and obstructive of patient rights.

Emerging technologies both improve and sometimes threaten these factors. Businesses in the healthcare field need to be sure that any emerging technology they deploy will continue to protect patient rights and needs while also helping to promote better health outcomes and long-term patient success

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What is Data Privacy in Healthcare?

Data privacy in healthcare refers to protecting sensitive patient data like their medical history from the sight of anyone who should not have access to it. For better or worse, technology has influenced the course of data privacy over the past few decades. Medical record-keeping is entirely digital these days, which allows healthcare businesses the chance to protect patient data with ease. However, electronic medical records storage can also be hacked by bad actors.

Employing an EHR that is protected from incursions and cyberattacks is key. When it comes to medical health record storage and maintenance, there is no reason to compromise on cost. Getting access to an EHR that is truly secure is key. No healthcare business should ever opt for a cheap solution when it comes to medical records storage and maintenance.

Human error is another major issue when it comes to data privacy, and one that healthcare businesses have to contend with on a daily basis. Security training, HIPAA-compliant procedures, and a robust security and compliance department are essential to maintain a healthcare organization that makes a minimal number of errors each year.

Your EHR and all of the other technology at your medical business must all work together to remain compliant with HIPAA and to put patients first. Even one small slip or a small loophole in the security of your healthcare practices can expose patients to risks and your organization to fines and penalties.

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HIPAA-Compliant Technology is Leading the Way When it Comes to Patient Health and Security

A healthy patient is a protected patient. HIPAA-compliant technology leads the way when it comes to patient outcomes, patient success, and patient security. All healthcare organizations need to be sure that they are prioritizing security and HIPAA when they are onboarding new technologies, new security solutions, and new staff workflows. Keeping security and data protection in mind at all times will allow your patients to trust you and your organization.

If you are looking for ways to improve data compliance and safety at your healthcare business, you need to make sure that you consider items like your phone system. As technology advances, the skill of bad actors also increases. Your business needs to make sure that patient safety and protection are always at the forefront. Maintaining a compliant healthcare business or organization requires attention to data compliance and safety on a daily basis, and quality technology can help you meet this goal.