As you can see from recent security breaches, any organization can fall victim to a hacker. Keeping sensitive information safe takes careful planning and constant updating. You need to assess your organization's risk level and use the latest encryption technology to store data and transfer data among various facilities. Healthcare organizations are as vulnerable to hackers as any other company. IT security solutions can minimize these risks and keep your sensitive data safe from potential hackers.

1. Be Prepared for Upcoming Audits

Recent updates to HIPAA Rules, which are designed to protect the privacy of individuals, include a mandatory audit. Familiarize yourself with what an audit entails so that you can present the information required. Generally, these audits will include the records of everyone involved with your organization such as medical billing companies, software vendors, and other business associates. Make sure your records are accurate and up-to-date.

Ensure you are properly prepared for a compliance audit at all times by establishing and assessing the policies and procedures required. This includes having a well thought out incident response plan. Healthcare organizations need a comprehensive incident response plan in place to avoid accidents like misplaced private data, which could lead to security breaches. 

2. Assess Your Security Risk

Assess your security risk by analyzing what has been done within your healthcare organization so far. Determine how and where data has been stored, shared, and transferred. Also, find out how the system is set up. Once you understand the system and how it works, you will be able to identify existing and potential holes in security, and fix them before they become a problem. 

If this sounds too overwhelming, contact Garland Heart for advice and assistance with strategic security consulting. An experienced IT consultant can help assess potential risks and find simple solutions to plug any holes.

3. Utilize Security Services and Technology Used for Encryption

Private healthcare information might be shared with medical researchers, pharmacies, and other healthcare organizations. By sharing information, patients can have prescriptions filled or renewed at different pharmacies, researchers can monitor the effectiveness of treatments, and other healthcare organizations can access a patient's records to check for allergies or underlying medical conditions. Although the practice of sharing information is beneficial to the patient, it should be limited to as few outside parties as possible.

With the implementation of each new healthcare technology, it’s important for you to reassess security policies. This includes how information is encrypted, where it is stored, and how it is transferred to outside parties. Optimize your security services to identify risks and protect electronic health information.