Safeguarding Protected Health Information With Ehr

By Author: ndxmart
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With the government’s push for Electronic Health Records software, also known as EHR, many physicians are in the process of evaluating the right product for their practice. Obvious factors such as usability and cost are the main focus for physicians looking to implement products within their practice as soon as possible. However, many physicians fail to realize that the protection of patient health information is just as important.
Since the issuance of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, physicians have been more concerned with the potential to receive Stimulus Incentives instead of finding software that is able to enhance patient care while making them more efficient. One point to recognize is that HIPAA is not synonymous with health data. Health data, when it is collected voluntarily by patient input, is outside the narrow definition of HIPAA. However, when health data is held by a physician and that data is held electronically, then the physician becomes responsible of that patient’s data and cannot disclose or share it without the patient’s consent.
There is ...
... both a security obligation and a privacy obligation about Protected Health Information (PHI). The physician is responsible for safekeeping the data – and there are processes for disclosing when (or if) that data becomes breached, as well as penalties for failure to follow the disclosure process. The physician also has the obligation to ensure that no one has inappropriate access to a patient’s PHI without permission.
Traditional enterprise applications are built to house the medical data (PHI) locally in a hospital or clinic, and rely on a locally-installed system to create a protected environment to shield that data from outside the walls of the clinic/facility. EHR This kind of setup is common,
Electronic Health Record Software and risks HIPAA breach if local machines housing PHI (including data backup devices) are lost, stolen, or compromised. Most recently, many Electronic Health Record software vendors offer web-based applications which are maintained by the vendor – with security and privacy being placed heavily on the vendor. In both instances, it is highly recommended (if not mandatory) to have proper safeguards in place such as firewalls, virus protection software, and proper data backup. In order to maintain security while improving patient health, it is important to choose an EHR vendor that offers these necessary safeguards that can truly benefit a physician practice.

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