Health organizations generate and capture the most private information from their patients, at an expeditious rate. Studies show that within just a few years, we will have a yottabyte (10 24 gigabytes) scale of data, and we’ll need a data center the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined to store all the information.
With this amount of personal information available, it is important to consider how diligently you are securing your patient’s information. Due to the increase in technological demand from COVID-19, now more than ever there is a higher risk for information mismanagement, harmful breaches, and hacks. To ensure that you are securing your patient’s privacy as well as your company’s reputation, be sure you apply the following six tips to your workflow:
- Strengthen user authentication
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- Controlled access safeguards can make sure that only certain individuals have access to certain features and printers, and they can control where your documents are securely stored.
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- Encrypt your data
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- Protect the integrity of your documents by making them unreadable to anyone outside of the intended users and recipients.
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- Protect confidential information
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- Make it impossible to reconstruct files by overwriting latent digital images with data overwrite security.
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- Create an audit trail
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- The HIPAA Security Rule and the HIPAA Final Omnibus Rule require that you track anyone who uses your devices and accesses this data.
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- Properly dispose of old equipment
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- Make sure you are safely and properly disposing of technology that no longer can keep your information safe.
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- Implement physical safeguards
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- Make sure the hardware and tools you are using to share and transfer information are in contact with the right people.
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Following these guidelines can help you protect your patients, your employees, and your bottom line. Read the article linked below for more details.