To make sure their information technology strategies adequately address the needs of physicians, many hospitals have designated a doctor to serve as chief medical informatics officer. These physicians are working closely with CIOs, CSOs and others to help select and implement I.T., including technologies to keep...
How do CIOs at community hospitals, which have limited resources, address data security challenges, such as compliance with the privacy and security provisions of the HITECH Act?
Charles Christian, CIO at Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, Ind., also serves as the defacto chief security officer, dividing up...
In 10 years as a security compliance officer, Christopher Paidhrin has seen his role broaden as information security has become an even higher priority at Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver, Wash.
Today, Paidhrin is more involved in policy development. He's also pushing to improve awareness of the...
Some call it HIPAA on Steroids. Others simply call it HIPAA II. Technically, it's the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. But however you label it, the HITECH Act spells out tougher data security requirements for all health care organizations as well as their business associates.
For physician group practices, responding to requests from patients, lawyers, insurers and others for copies of patients' medical records is a time-consuming, labor-intensive headache. But one New York practice has found that secure e-mail is a cure for that pain, as well as a remedy for other communication maladies.
The HITECH Act should be a wake-up call to physician group practices of all sizes regarding the need to take data security seriously, a consultant who advises practices stresses. And that means following the right procedures as well as using the right technologies, says Rosemarie Nelson, principal at MGMA Consulting...
The single most important step hospitals should take to comply with the HITECH Act is to retrain all employees, physicians and even volunteers on how to maintain the privacy and security of personal health information. That's the advice of Dan Rode, a regulatory expert at the American Health Information Management...
(Part four)
The tough enforcement provisions of the HITECH Act may scare some healthcare organizations into finally getting their data security act together.
(Part three)
The most significant security provision of the HITECH Act is its explicit requirement for healthcare organizations to promptly notify individuals of data security breaches.
When it comes to reporting data security breaches, healthcare organizations have the equivalent of a "get out of jail free" card, says consultant Tom Walsh.
(Part two of a four-part series)
The HITECH Act provides strong new incentives for healthcare organizations to create comprehensive data security plans and train their staffs on how to keep personal health information secure.
A well-known healthcare information security expert who's advising federal regulators on policy issues offers advice to organizations preparing to comply with the data breach notification requirements of the HITECH Act.
In an interview, Dixie Baker of SAIC advises hospitals and others to:
Study how the HITECH...
(Part one of a four-part series)
For years, healthcare organizations have faced federal requirements to comply with HIPAA privacy and security rules. But those rules had no teeth because they were rarely enforced.
Last year's passage of the HITECH Act toughened the rules, mandated ramped-up enforcement and...
Patients have a right to know when their information was disclosed or breached. And so does the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and in some extreme cases, your local news media - largely because of the HITECH Act.
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