Best Practices and Recommendations: Tablet Selection for Use by Healthcare Practitioners White Paper Date: April 16, 2016 Contents * Overview and Background * Criteria for Consideration * Operating Systems * Security, Legal and Regulatory * Hardware * Recommendation Overview and Background A large, local hospital has requested consulting assistance with a technical research and specification project related to the selection of a tablet device for use in their medical practice. This tablet will be used by personnel for medical and administrative purposes throughout the hospital. Criteria for Consideration The following criteria have been considered as part of this evaluation: Operating System: …show more content…
While software selection criteria were not in scope for this effort, it does warrant discussion on the overall availability of specialty software for the medical industry on iOS, Android and Windows platforms. Currently, most of the “MCA’s” or Medical Clinical Assistant platforms operate in a Windows-only environment, as do most of the key medical records and billing platforms in the medical field. The cost of custom software development to build a mobile solution is far beyond the budget of most local hospitals and not an endeavor to be undertaken lightly. Legal, Regulatory and Security Concerns There are a multitude of patient privacy (HIPAA) and patient information concerns related to the use of technology in medical care. Selection of the proper hardware, operating systems and system software make the compliance with and documentation in support of these regulations far easier. The Android and iOS operating systems have recently introduced features such as enforced encryption that have made them useable in PCI and HIPAA compliant environments. The Windows OS has supported PCI and HIPAA compliant elements for some time. It is critical to keep in mind that PCI and HIPAA compliance is challenging; simple features such as encryption and two-factor authentication availability assist in making a device compliant but do not guarantee compliance.
There were concerns related to risks of hackers, malware attacks, password changes which can be disruptive to the clinical workflow and can lead to inefficiency. Human errors, inadequate knowledge and ability to use PHR (health literacy). Are the patients aware of the HIPAA regulations? Some patients of a particular age group refrain from using PHR. Interoperability which is the core purpose of electronic health records is also one of the primary concerns. The use of unauthorized USB drives can lead to the malware attack which may interoperability. The other questions that needs to be answered is despite encryption, firewalls which have been initiated to maintain security, there are still concerns about data security
Cerner offers Skybox storage for the storage of patient information. It has an unlimited storage capacity and the data is uploaded once and then available in the Cloud at anytime and location. Data is located at the hospital site and at Cerner data center locations. This allows for file replication in the event of data loss or corruption. Military grade encryption is utilized with continuous intrusion monitoring (Cerner, 2015). Security standards are also built into the system to meet HIPAA standard. HIPAA training must be completed by each new employee and a signature must be obtain that the employee will follow HIPAA guidelines. Access to patient information is only given if it is pertains to their hired position. The hospital must develop HIPAA policies that are updated annually. User specific logins and passwords are utilized to sign into the system and they need to be changed at set
Medical records and medical correspondence are increasingly going digital. This has different risks than traditional paper records. Starting with HIPAA compliant software helps keep digital records safe. The IT end of things is a critical piece of the puzzle and one that can be a burden for small offices
Medical treatments require a great deal of paperwork. Before patients are allowed to go through treatments, a clinic must process their insurances, medical records, and surgery details. As a result, a lot of private information is gathered within the hospitals. With so much private information, it is essential for healthcare facilities to efficiently organize their paperwork. An unorganized recording system can prove disastrous to a hospital. Leaving patients’ paperwork publicly unattended and misplacing a file are both considered negligent. Misplacing patients’ information can potentially lead to information theft and invasion of privacy. An efficient way of storing information can be valuable in preventing HIPAA
This system has proven success in working with hospitals of this size. The hospital already utilizes many pieces of patient equipment which have platforms which interface easily with the Cerner®. This will allow the nursing, pharmacy, physician and respiratory care staff to pull patient care data from the devices into the on line documentation forms. Cerner® is certified for meaningful use.
Any patient that is seen by a physician within the United States is to be protected by the “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act” or HIPAA, which was passed into law in 1996 (Jani, 2009). All health care facilities dealing with any protected health information (PHI) are to ensure that all physical/electronic processes are safeguarded from any third party entity or unauthorized personnel according to HIPAA. All health care data to include any medical insurance
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that requires covered entities to maintain reasonable and appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for protecting electronic patient health information (e-PHI) (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules). Entities must: 1) ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all e-PHI they create, receive, maintain, or transmit; 2) identity and protect against reasonable anticipated threats to the security or integrity of the information; 3) protect against reasonable anticipated , impermissible users or disclosures; and 4) ensure compliance in the workplace. Entities must review and modify security measures to continue protecting e-PHI in a changing environment. They are required to run risk assessments as part of security measures, implement security measures that reduce risks and vulnerabilities to a reasonable and appropriate level, and designate a security officer responsible for developing and implementing its security policies and procedures.
Legislation related to use of technology to comply with HIPAA requires insurance companies, health care providers, employers insurance, to implement administrative, physical and technical safeguards for protecting the confidentiality of patients information which prevents a breach of ePHI. If a breach of ePHI occurs, Healthcare providers, employers, third party service providers and insurance companies are liable for
HIPAA privacy rules protect patients ' privacy and provide patients access to their medical records. The security standards include certain integrity, privacy, and physical safeguards component, protecting computer systems and network system from physical intrusion and hazards. This security measure is headed in the right direction to display the steps needed to protect all data and procedures by regulations. With HIPPA rules in place, an individual has the right to request any of the entities that the electronic protected health information shows that are not accurate. To ensure al privacy steps has been taken it will involves communications between the medical organization database medical staff and the patient who has requested information to remain as secret. A Good example would be when an individual give medical office his work number to use as a form of communication , in place of his or cellular or home phone number.
Information technology(IT) in the 21st century has brought in several innovative changes in the physician practice and hospital system.There are several new possibilities and opportunities for information use and communication, at the same time there are new ethical, clinical, and legal concerns that have arisen with the use of information technology.As healthcare is growing complex, the majority of the studies focuses on new modalities of diagnosis and treatment.Conversely, no effort is targeted on improving operational systems.Although IT has brought in a mass customization, it poses threat to the medical safety ( Jorgenson, Notman, Benedek, & Malmquist, 2011). Recently, privacy and security concerns
At the point when the new remote rigging is requested by hospital's medicinal gear purchasers, the HIPAA rules must be considered. When purchasing choices are made for observing gadgets or remote intravenous network, their ability to scramble bits of information that are ensured by HIPAA must be considered in. Every single restorative gadget that are utilized on doctor's facility's remote system, and additionally, the security settings maximized should be
Healthcare systems. Patient privacy along with other security concerns should be considered while implementing BYOD in a healthcare organization. It is mandatory to Healthcare policymakers to ensure that mobile devices that store and transmit the patient data are HIPAA-compliant.
Today the healthcare industry makes use of small form factor PCs like those manufactured by Cybernet in a wide variety of applications. These include the patient exam rooms where both the doctor and the nursing staff use tablets to update
Patient records hold valuable information that patient want to keep private and share only with their care providers. As organizations begin to transition to electronic medicals these systems are able to hold a wealth of information that clinical staff, payers, and other organization request release of information to review. Illustrating the increase need for organizations to review policies that will address the new concerns and ensure the functions of patient healthcare records are addressed accordingly. Patient health records are the warehouse that stores patient data with information consisting of past and current care as well as treatment and results.
There has been a massive growth in the medical field for physicians using mobile and handheld devices to communicate and collaborate with different individuals such as patients, clinics, and laboratories. While observing the videos discussing NLM mobile and Epocrates it’s my understanding that technology can improve information accessibility. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the world’s largest medical library that can be downloaded on the iPad device.In addition, Epocrates is a great tool for drug dosing as stated by Dr. Kathy.