HIPAA is an everyday stressor in the healthcare industry. A computer-based recordkeeping system can help keep records secure and HIPAA compliant.  

For many in the health care industry, compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is an everyday stressor that dictates the actions and availability of information. However, HIPAA is necessary to protect the patients’ information and medical records. A violation of HIPAA could lead to lawsuits and large fees, which could cause a business or practice to close their doors.

The Challenge of Human Error

Unfortunately, even the perfect system is prone to human error, especially if you do not have integrated checks and balances that are part of a computer document management software.

Many facilities that are larger in size have already integrated their records into a computer-based record-keeping system. This type of software is especially helpful for the large volume of records that they keep on a daily basis. However, smaller healthcare facilities may want to consider a customized computer-based record-keeping system to stay HIPAA compliant.

Typically, most HIPAA violations happen without employees’ knowledge, or they are due to simple inexperience. Some of the most common HIPAA violations include:

• Accessing records for any reason other than to aid in treatment or payment
• Not using a secure encryption method for protecting health records
• Removing patient information from the facility, either physically or on an unauthorized device
• Sharing patient information via a personal email
• No control or lack of control of who accesses patient health information
• Not removing access of former employees

Digital Solution for Record Keeping

Physical paper documents have a higher chance of being compromised because their very nature requires that you physically secure them. Within HIPAA, health facilities not only have to worry about who has access to patient information but for what reason.

While some electronic solutions can help healthcare facilities step away from paper options, such as a common or shared network drives, these do not provide the security needed to remain HIPAA compliant. HIPAA requires that digital solutions for handling patients’ personal information have almost cutting-edge security tools. Due to the private nature of patients’ information within the system, health facilities’ data is considered a prime target for hackers looking for targets with blackmail or ransomware.

Benefits of Moving to Digital Record-Keeping

Even for small health care facilities, there is a digital document management system that could fit the needs of the business while still being HIPAA compliant. Some of the benefits of digital record keeping are:

• Tracking for Audit Purposes – A digital document management system can record everything that happens to a file. The record could include which user has accessed the file, when the file was accessed, if anything has changed since the last time it was accessed, and historical copies of the file.
• Control Over File Permissions – The records system administrators can control who has permission to view a file and the features they are available to use once they have access.
• Unique Security Options – Administrators can dictate which users have access to patient information. As an example, administrators can add a two-step authentication method to access sensitive patient information.

Privacy and HIPAA compliance can be challenging, but adding the right document management tools can help with the stress and pressure of protecting patients’ information.

Given how medical providers struggle with ensuring their data is safe, something had to be done to offer guidance. Read this blog about a new cybersecurity plan.  

The picture archiving and communication system (PACS) is an ecosystem that stores images that are gathered from medical imaging technology. This ecosystem offers a convenient platform where medical providers can store and access these vital images. However, this ecosystem is vulnerable to cyberattacks.

In order to provide protection for this confidential data, the NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence recently released proposed guidance to assist healthcare delivery organizations with securing their picture archiving and communication systems. In addition, they also released a project aimed at providing an example solution for building stronger security controls.

The guidance material called, Securing Picture Archiving and Communication System, includes aspects that help health organizations design an approach, architecture, and security elements for the PACS ecosystem, including easy-to-follow how-to guidance.

The Evolution of Digital Capabilities

As image-making technologies have taken a gigantic leap over the last decade, now confidential data and vital imaging are uploaded in a digital format by providers across the globe. This adds a huge level of convenience and gives providers the ability to easily store and share this content. The systems that house these images and data are typically stored in image-intensive areas like the radiology department and are also uploaded to each patient’s electronic health record (EHR).

But as this process adds easier accessibility and organization in a digital format, including limiting the time to takes for doctors to make a diagnosis, the technology has also opened the door to more cyber threats. And many medical providers struggle with auditing user accounts and monitoring them properly to suspect any abnormal behavior. Medical providers also struggle with ensuring that data moves safely across the network and also with monitoring access by its users, which can lead to a drop in system performance.

Goals of the Project

With the project set forth by the NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, their goals include the following:

• Identify who uses the PACS systems
• Determine the process between the user and system
• Perform a risk assessment
• Identify appropriate mitigating security tools
• Design an example solution

The ultimate goal here is to assist provider organizations with reducing the chance of a cyber breach or substantial data loss, while also minimizing any disruptions with their systems. This also puts emphasis on enabling quick access to imaging and important data without this confidential data becoming vulnerable to an attack, which also offers peace of mind for patient privacy.

Broad Capabilities Equals Broad Threat Landscape

So what makes these systems so vulnerable? This occurs from the broad capabilities of this technology. The PACS connectivity of the ecosystem works with a variety of different technologies that include medical imaging devices and other systems that help to manage and maintain archives of medical images. The role of PACS is to interact with medical imaging devices, connect with other clinical systems, and allow users from multiple locations to review images that lead to faster and higher quality patient care.

With such a broad spectrum of capabilities involved with the PACS ecosystem, the means a broad landscape for threat.