Dec
15
Group Polishes Guidelines on HIPAA Security Rules – Computerworld
Filed Under HIPAA Compliance, HIPAA News, HIPAA Training | Comments Off
More HIPAA guidelines in the works due soon from nonprofit group.
Data Protection
HIPAA’s security rules, which were published in The Federal Register in April 2003, specify administrative, technical and physical measures that companies have to implement to protect confidential patient data.
Jopp said the working group’s compliance guidelines are based on a variety of sources, including best-practices documents, case studies and standards efforts by organizations such as the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
The guidelines are meant to give IT and business managers “a better feel for what it will take to comply” with the HIPAA rules, said Mark McClaughlin, a Dubuque, Iowa-based regulatory policy analyst at McKesson Corp. McClaughlin is an adviser to the WEDI and co-chairman of the security working group.
Such guidance could be potentially useful, especially for smaller health care organizations that might be struggling to understand HIPAA’s requirements, said a former member of the working group who requested anonymity.
“The problem with the security rule is that it isn’t easy to implement,” he said, adding that many companies “are looking for someone to tell them, ‘Here’s how to do it.’”
Read the entire article at Computerworld
Dec
4
John Udell’s hospital experience and observations about HIPAA violations
Filed Under HIPAA Compliance, HIPAA Privacy, HIPAA Technology | Comments Off
John Udell at Infoworld gives his take on the current state of data entry at hospitals, and the HIPAA violations that he observed and offers possible solutions to the repetitous answering of the same questions over and over.
Tales from the data entry trenches
When it comes to compiling and managing complex data, many applications still have a long way to go
By Jon Udell November 26, 2004
When a family member underwent a series of minor medical procedures recently, I got a telling glimpse of the hospital’s data-entry systems. As I’m sure is true elsewhere, it isn’t a pretty picture.
The ordeal begins at the registration desk, where, no matter how many visits you’ve made — sometimes even on the same day — you are required to “Cverify your information.” Listening to someone read from a screen such facts as date of birth, address, employer, and insurer has always bugged me. But when this procedure is immediately repeated at the surgical registration desk, it becomes a flagrant HIPAA violation. Anyone within earshot is made privy to information the hospital must, by law, safeguard.
Read the entire article: InfoWorld: Tales from the data entry trenches: November 26, 2004: By Jon Udell
Dec
2
Doctor’s office installing WiFi hotspot in waiting room – possible security risk?
Filed Under HIPAA (General), HIPAA Security, HIPAA Technology | 1 Comment
The Star-Telegram in Texas reports on a doctor’s office where they’re installing a wireless hotspot in the waiting room. While we agree that this is probably a great thing for patients (we love our hotspots, we do), it might not be such a hot idea to be making IT infrastructure available to the public (even if you really try to secure it and keep it separate from your backend operations). Securing closed systems without wireless is tricky enough. Throw wireless in, and you may be opening the door to HIPAA problems.
For many patients, visiting the doctor means first enduring a stint in the waiting room — complete with uncomfortable chairs, outdated magazines and the drone of a television set.
Not anymore, at the Medical Clinic of North Texas.
The doctors’ practice, which has 24 clinics specializing in family and internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology, has turned six of its locations in Arlington, Irving and Plano into WiFi “hot spots.”
The technology allows patients free wireless Internet access while they idle at the doctors’ office, where they can use their laptops or other gadgets to read e-mail, pay bills or browse their favorite Web sites.
“We really wanted to think of something for the patients that would be a better use of their time,” said Emily Alcantar, clinic spokeswoman. “It’s kind of exciting for us to be at the forefront of something like this.”
Read the entire article: Star-Telegram | 11/17/2004 | UNPLUGGED
(Via Jeff’s HIPAA Blog)