Low-tech doesn’t mean high-security: how to best protect patient data
Thursday, 1. October 2009
Hospitals and practices are concerned about the security of their patients’ information, and rightfully so. The fear of data pirates and hackers prevents many health providers from making the switch from paper records to electronic ones. However, as this Colorado hospital discovered, sticking to paper records won’t prevent the possibility of confidential patient information being compromised or stolen.
In fact, providers wanting to maximize the security of their patient information might consider that it is much easier to keep patient information secure if it is housed in digital format with proper access and audit controls. Client-server-based systems that still rely on staff backing up information on tapes are simply relocating the problem, as a rash of news stories recently has proven, but remotely hosted Internet-based systems can exceed HIPAA regulations, take care of backups in a secure data center, and protect data being transmitted between you and the server by using a secure, private platform that avoids the cluttered, public forum of the World Wide Web.