Bradford Networks and Airwatch Provide Secure BYOD at University of California, Irvine Medical Center
Mobile Device Management and Network Security Automation let physicians and students safely interact with hospital systems using their personal devices.
A world-class academic medical center with a full range of acute and general-care services, UC Irvine
Medical Center is at the forefront of medical education and research and prides itself on delivering the highest quality patient care.
At UC Irvine Medical Center, mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads are a way of life for doctors, professors, medical students and staff. When Allscripts, which supplies the Medical Center’s electronic medical record (EMR) system, announced it was developing a mobile app, “We knew our doctors and medical personnel would be clamoring to use this application,” explains Adam Gold, Director of Emerging Technologies at UC Irvine Medical Center. “The time had come when we needed a BYOD strategy that would enable our staff to securely use their own devices at the medical center.”
Several challenges would need to be overcome along the way. The most pressing concern was protecting HIPAA-compliant data. Adam recognized that security had to start at the endpoint so only approved, secure devices with safe would be allowed on the network.
The Challenge
Physicians, instructors, students and hospital staff interact with the EMR system in many different ways, and these varied access levels had to be
Our vision is to be the hospital of choice for patients, employees, physicians, volunteers, and the community.
In the hectic and harried environment of a hospital, a nurse or technician does not have to search for an available workstation when they can pull up an individual chart on their tablet. Medical personnel can expect to access medical records more frequently and faster than traditional paper and folder charting models. “Location no longer creates a barricade to patient data. Role-based roaming and printing means better access to records from multiple locations. Many different devices, such as tablets and mobile phones, are supported.” 3
EMR system documents the examination, diagnosis, and treatment of a patient. This information is vital for the current and
This hospital is a 65-bed rural hospital but it is the job of every hospital to give the best patient care possible. With a
The technology needed in this scenario that would make this combination successful consist of network security measures to ensure security of protected health information under the federal requirements of HIPPA
Unfortunately, along with the good must come the bad. For every positive aspect of smartphones and social media in healthcare related settings, there is an equally negative aspect. One pitfall of smartphones in healthcare is directly related to one of the positive aspects of smartphones: the availability of medical
West Hills hospital & Medical Center is known for its affluence and older population. It offers emergency services, surgical services, cancer care, fitness and rehabilitation, joint care, regional heart & vascular, and social services for patients in need of social worker, therapist, and vital resources.
Automation and interconnections with information in their healthcare environments need increasing support, security measures need to be implemented without disrupting the workflow of approved users, costs associated with data breaches and damage to their reputation need to be avoided. IT budgets constraints also impose limitations in many healthcare institutions. Compliance with security and privacy related regulations in healthcare and making sure what policies and standards should be implemented requires solutions that clearly address security challenges so that they can be integrated into a healthcare institution’s existing infrastructure and business practice. As data is transmitted across countless environments and is stored on an ever-expanding grouping of endpoint and storage devices such as computers, laptops, and removable storage devices, it will become evident that there will be a need for strong encryption. Under the HITECH Act and comparable state laws, encrypted data that is received or acquired by unauthorized persons through a lost or stolen electronic device or an errant email, is typically not considered a breach. However, healthcare institutions need to determine the level of encryption they should adopt. For example, a hospital could decide where there is the greatest risk of information loss (patient data in email messages or on storage drive) that is not on internal
Brennan’s promotion MMC constituted 2 acute care hospitals, 31 community based primary care centers, a home care agency and an annual operating budget of $1 billion, 24 academic chairpersons, 800 full time medical center faculty and 750 residents – the performances of all will be much more easily evaluated via a balanced scorecard).
How can EMR’s improve the nursing process now and in the future? Having had the op-portunity to perform my clinicals in three different Emergency Departments in the past two years and being exposed to both the positive and negative to both paper and paperless medical records Training new nurses is vital for an accurate EMR. Bober, M., & Boonstra, J.
In the current era of digitization, with all the data being converted from paper to electronic records, even the healthcare industry has become so dependent on technology. As hospitals are adopting electronic means for data storage, medical results, transactions and billing, utmost care is to be taken to protect a patient’s personal privacy by protecting their electronic health records, which is only possible by enhancing the security and privacy of the hospital’s network. This paper proposes certain security mechanisms for a more controlled and safer access to the healthcare provider’s network, thus being aware of every device trying to access the network and making sure only authorized devices are able to connect, with the help of measures such as, intrusion detection systems to continuously monitor the network, firewalls to ensure endpoint devices comply with security policies and biometrics for identity based network access control.
For a medium-sized urban hospital with 160 beds and 1,500 associates to be able to gain the trust and confidence of patients and compete with mega-hospitals in the healthcare industry, the management of the hospital would have to explore new technologies that would enhance the quality of services and patient care rendered to customers. Further, to ensure that all the departments in the hospitals such as ICUs, mother & baby, emergency services, radiology, oncology, surgery, and operating room (OR) would have to function efficiently and improve the patient experience. New EMR application would improve the security of patient’s information and ensure timely retrieval of medical records such that the quality of diagnosis would be enhanced significantly. As the IT director, it is my responsibility to make sure that the hospital system has a robust IT network that would enable efficient information flow within
This research article examines the security concerns of using mobile technology systems in health care institution. Various methods of ensuring privacy and security of patient’s electronic medical information are addressed. This high quality article is relevant for present day mobile security issues. The authors utilize a host of credible references in the health care and information technology fields.
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.