The way healthcare professional’s access data is changing, but security needs to change to meet HIPAA standards. Access to information is critical for physicians and staff as rapid communication and ease of access may determine a patient’s life or death. One of the most popular ways to access patient files is via mobile devices. Unfortunately these devices aren’t always as secure as they should be and the healthcare industry has been the target of staggering amounts of successful cyber attacks over the past few years.
In today’s world, organizations encounter many different types of crises. Natural disasters, workplace violence, technological crises, and financial crises are just some of the unexpected dilemmas that threaten employee safety, company reputation, corporate assets, and financial results.
When developing plans to manage a crisis, it is imperative that a communication strategy be incorporated.
Imagine you are the CEO of a large financial institution and your organization is losing approximately $1,000 per minute in revenue opportunities and employee productivity. Your organization has a complex IT infrastructure and must monitor several critical business systems utilizing CRM, network monitoring tools, and custom in-house solutions. You have a room fully staffed with numerous dispatchers to respond to every alert – whether it is from the help desk or there is an emergency that needs handled immediately. Yet your organization is still losing money in network downtime. Why? What is the solution?
Universities are not immune to emergencies such as fires, weather crises, mass shootings, and infectious disease outbreaks. The key to combatting these emergencies to the greatest extent possible is preparedness. Administrators, professors, and students must be prepared for anything to happen at any time.
Looking back at the Virginia Tech mass shooting that occurred on April 16, 2007, the first 911 call came in at 7:15 a.m., notifying police there were at least two shooting victims at West Ambler Johnston Hall.
Placing a loved one with Alzheimer’s or any other memory-impairing disease in an assisted senior living environment is sometimes the best and only option for that person. If faced with such a situation, you want to ensure they receive the best possible care and ensure their safety. Therefore, you take a tour, meet with caregivers, and leave a list of phone numbers for a staff member to call in case of emergency. Have you asked how communication flows within the organization?
Let’s be honest, we live in a dangerous world. From school shootings to bomb threats to gang activities, violence is sadly very prevalent today. Luckily, we have the public safety system as well as hospitals and other resources who will do anything and everything they can to help us if the need arises. However, before they can help us, they need to be notified – immediately and accurately. Notifying one police officer if there is a shooter in the local mall is not sufficient notification.
In today’s world, our police departments, fire departments, EMS departments, hospitals, educational institutions, large enterprises, and many others must have the means to reach people promptly when there is an emergency. This involves having a wireless paging software system with complete two-way SMS texting, voice messaging, and fax messaging capabilities to virtually any device.
There is a shooter in the building. A patient is missing. A tornado is seven minutes away. There is a major fire in the building. Enterprises will inevitably face crises. Preparation is key to effective crisis response management. If there is a shooter in the building, the facility is locked down and the police are notified. This scenario should also include a previously prepared, very rapid announcement to the entire staff for everyone to stay where they are, lock the doors, and hide. Being prepared in this situation could save many lives by simply sending a message – if the messaging system itself is effective.
In today’s world, wireless communication is the most effective method of alerting the right people at the right time that there is a crisis. Regardless of the time of day or night, wireless communication ensures that, once notified, team members can work together to effectively respond in a crisis.
In this rapidly advancing technological world, an increasing number of healthcare providers are incorporating electronic health record (EHR) technology. In addition, they are also connecting to health information exchanges more frequently, making patient health information (PHI) more susceptible to online security threats as well as possible HIPAA data breaches.
The convenience of PHI being more accessible to providers also carries the risk of being more accessible to hackers and unauthorized users. Effectively monitoring and managing potential risk is imperative for a healthcare organization. Risk assessments play a key role in staying HIPAA compliant. Mobile devices and ransomware threats are examples of why healthcare providers need to be prudent in their risk analyses. The slightest oversight or lapse could lead to a HIPAA data breach as well as a lengthy, expensive recovery course.
Implementation of Secure Text Messaging (STM) affords healthcare providers a convenient, efficient method to communicate with colleagues in real time. Lab results, medication requests, and test results can all be sent and received via a secure, encrypted text messaging app.
However, implementation alone does not ensure usage of the STM app. Many healthcare providers may be skeptical of the new changes to the existing system. In order to augment adaptation, hospitals need to be driven and encouraging in their efforts to promote usage of the app. An internal marketing campaign, support from the IT department, and positive feedback from users are some ways this can be done.
