LATEST INTELLIGENCE
BEST PRACTICES FOR HEALTHCARE
PROVIDERS SAFEGUARDING PATIENT
RECORDS AND SENSITIVE INFORMATION
W
hen a health system suffers a
data breach, it can cause serious
and irreversible damage to
patients, employees, third-party partners,
the business and the trusted relationship
between patients and their care providers.
The trouble is, health data and other sensitive
information stored in health provider systems
need to be shared with other entities.
For example, in the course of treatment,
protected health information (PHI) can travel
between medical and finance departments,
other practices, family members, and third-
party entities such as insurance companies
and home health agencies. All the while,
health systems are legally bound to protect
confidential information while co-ordinating
care and payment.
The need to share data isn’t the only problem.
Sensitive information is stored at all levels of
healthcare organisations, and there’s so much
new, unstructured data generated every day
that it can be difficult for IT administrators
to know where it all resides and how and by
whom it is being used. Judging by the rising
number of data breaches-and ransomware
attacks resulting in hospital shutdowns-
health systems are seriously lagging when
it comes to safeguarding patient records
and other sensitive data. In fact, healthcare
records of more than 112 million individuals
were compromised by data breaches in 2015,
according to the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services. n
Download whitepapers free from www.intelligentcio.com/me/whitepapers/
www.intelligentcio.com
INTELLIGENTCIO
21