iTrust is a patient centric application that is designed to assist patients and health care providers in maintaining individual’s health related data within the electronic health record (EHR). Patients’ health records are a great target for many attackers because they contain sensitive data. The main goal of iTrust is to create a system that centralizes medical information of a patient from many sources in order to provide a summary of health records in a way that is useful to health care professionals (Meneely, Smith, & Williams, 2011). Adding and adopting EHR raises major concerns and challenges for protecting the privacy of patients’ health information. iTrust maintains not only the personal sensitive information and health records, but also a comprehensive transaction logs which is used to track the patient’s profile. The application’s transaction log allows patients to track who viewed their medical information when they log in the iTrust system. The application also has a function that allows patients to change and update their personal information. In addition, iTrust system is designed to equip health care providers with the features to learn about their patients’ chronic diagnosis ranging from diabetes and heart disease if present. After conducting the risk assessment, our team came up with the various rankings of the security risk model, with 1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest risk for the iTrust database application’s new requirements. The adoption of
Team Delta’s task was to review the iTrust software risk assessment and come up with a security risk assessment. The team was also asked to rank the security risk for each of the four requirements for the iTrust application.
The challenges of integrating diverse healthcare standards, intranet and Internet communications, patient and consultant accessibility to EHRs and internal business systems require an exceptionally mobile, intuitive and secure platform. EMR and EHR software are designed to integrate electronic health records into healthcare businesses to provide HIPAA compliance. However, to meet or exceed these requirements and offer patients, medical staff, insurance providers and outside consultants access to EMRs and EHRs, healthcare businesses need a robust communications platform to connect these stakeholders. The benefits of offering Web access to health records include better patient care, cost savings and efficiencies, better coordination between medical service providers and greater patient participation in his or her own care.
Technology has enabled us to make advances in patient care, and thus increase healthy patient outcomes. Nurses are constantly adapting to new technology, and need to learn to work with their IT department to successfully maneuver their electronic system. This paper will provide details of EHR implementation, and the goals of health implementation technology.
Although electronic health record (EHR) systems many healthcare organizations, are turning to the electronic health record (EHR), there are are potential and actual disadvantages of the system. Disadvantages of the EHR includes financial issues, changes in workflow, temporary loss of productivity associated with EHR system, privacy and security concerns, as well as several unplanned consequences (Menachemi & Collum, 2011).
Technology has come a long way over the years and continues to advance rapidly. The health care system is greatly affected by the advancements in technology. An example of this would be the use of electronic health records (EHR). In this paper I will be describing the electronic health record system. How my facility has initiated the EHR with following the six steps and describe meaningful use and how my facility is working towards this. Lastly I will discuss how to maintain patient confidentiality with use of EHR, and what my facility is doing to prevent HIPPA violations.
Today, the patient will visit the same doctor and the doctor will enter the data into a tablet or pc. The EHR is a designed very similar to the paper chart, but is programmed to collect and segregate the information in different formats to transmit securely to the necessary partners. Those partners include insurance carriers, public health entities, clearinghouses, laboratories, and pharmacist. This data is collected and stored on secure servers. In most EHR’s today, a doctor who has a private practice, and maybe affiliated with a hospital has the ability to allow the hospital to access a patient’s record, if that patient has agreed to release their information to the hospitals. So if the patient is taken to the local hospital, the hospital can have access to the patient’s records if an authorization is in place. The EHR will not only collect the patient medical information, it will track the medical information. Providers are required to secure the information and track the medical records activity via a built-in audit system that will show the medical records history and the name of all parties that access the patient’s records. Poor EHR system design and improper use can cause EHR-related errors that jeopardize the integrity of the information in the EHR, leading to errors that endanger patient safety or decrease the quality of care. These unintended consequences also may increase fraud and abuse and can have
It is hard to take a snapshot of the current technology used in healthcare as tomorrow a new innovative idea is right around the corner. A major change that has occurred over time comes from the use of electronic health records (EHR). Electronic health records usage has been on the rise for several years. It has been used by physicians, ambulatory staff, and HMOs. Since data can be easily altered the copies that must be certified for any medical provider to reference. There is a criterion for the composition of this data due to the exchanging of patient information within an interoperable medical
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has set out the creation and maintenance of electronic health records (EHR) as the means by which patient care can be improved while the overall costs of healthcare to society can be driven down. However, the ability to consolidate patient records and increase their portability has increased their vulnerability to theft and exposure. Along with the requirement to create EHRs, HIPAA has mandated security requirements for a class of information identified as electronic protected health information (ePHI) in an effort to protect the confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from criminal misuse and general exposure. The iTrust Medical Care Requirements System (iTrust)
When discussing the threats and vulnerabilities of iTrust, it is important to identify the security measures to potentially rectify or prevent additional security issues. The iTrust database application presented quite a few threats and vulnerabilities. One threat discussed is the threat of a facility not having the proper equipment needed to run a secure organization. For proper security, an organization may need to invest in equipment or devices that are more secure out-of-the-box. This means that computers and/or devices that are straight out-of-the-box are deemed to be more secure in comparison to a computer/device that have been used.
In response to a rapid advancement in technologies, a concern for security has also grown. A drawback of a significant increase in adoption of EHR would be the vulnerability of patients’ sensitive information as frequently seen in cases of identity theft and breach in the retail industry as of late. As of January 1, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services reported a staggering number of 81, 790 breaches of patient information in healthcare (McDavid, 2013).
Over the past decade, virtually every major industry invested heavily in computerization. Relative to a decade ago, today more Americans buy airline tickets and check in to flights online, purchase goods on the Web, and even earn degrees online in such disciplines as nursing,1 law,2 and business,3 among others. Yet, despite these advances in our society, the majority of patients are given handwritten medication prescriptions, and very few patients are able to email their physician4 or even schedule an appointment to see a provider without speaking to a live receptionist. Electronic health record (EHR) systems have the potential to transform the health care system from a mostly paper-based industry to one that utilizes clinical
After decades of paper based medical records, a new type of record keeping has surfaced - the Electronic Health Record (EHR). EHR is an electronic or digital format concept of an individual’s past and present medical history. It is the principle storage place for data and information about the health care services provided to an individual patient. It is maintained by a provider over time and capable of being shared across different healthcare settings by network-connected information systems. Such records may include key administrative and clinical data relevant to that persons care under a particular provider. Examples of such records may include: demographics, physician notes, problems or injuries, medications and allergies, vital
Electronic Health Record is an official health record for an individual that is shared among multiple facilities and agencies. There are many components to it;
The electronic health record (EHR) is a digital record of a patient’s health history that may be made up of records from many locations and/or sources, such as hospitals, providers, clinics, and public health agencies. The EHR is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and has built-in safeguards to assure patient health information confidentiality and security. (Huston, 2013)
Before, there is no security standards set for protecting health information in the healthcare industry. According to Electronic Health Records: Understanding and Using Computerized Medical Records, Richard Gartee states that as the new technologies were evolving, the healthcare industry begun to rely on the use of computers. Today more and more health records are being stored in the computers. Many of these electronic records are created by doctors and hospitals and they offered plenty of advantages. Doctors say that electronic health records make finding and sharing of information easier and for patients that can mean reducing medical mistakes and better care. Whether your information maintains in paper or electronic health records you have the right to keep it private and that privacy is protected by healthcare law called HIPAA (Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act).