After reading an article labeled “What is more important – patient safety or hospital IT?” I wanted to offer a slightly alternative read in the hopes of 1) getting more discussions going, 2) giving the readers an alternative perspective 3) countering/clarifying certain statements on that article. While I don’t believe the author set out to just create a “whitepaper” like writing, I do believe the author should have taken some time to “think about what he is trying to convey first, do some serious research, and then write an article.”
In the article, my inference was: “medical devices manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves, and should foresee everybody else’s problems.” As evidenced by the introductory statement:
“What is more important – patient safety or the health of the enterprise hospital Windows network? What is more important – writing secure code or installing an anti-virus?”
I am unsure who this question was aimed at, but a medical device manufacturer has no bearing on “Windows” or “Anti-Virus” when you get down to the nitty gritty. Nor should a medical device manufacturer be tasked with the responsibilities of a hospital purchased and owned system that has USB ports on them. And alas: “a decision was taken to migrate the medical device OS platform to embedded Linux to eliminate typical Microsoft Windows network and removable device vulnerabilities.” What is “typical Microsoft Windows network/removable device vulnerabilities” - what does that even mean, I
Over time, the importance of medical devices will rise. Nearly 10,000 of consumers born between 1946 and 1964 (i.e. Baby Boomers) will retire each day (Friedburg, 2016), and there is a reasonable assumption that a necessary medical device is in the Baby Boomer’s future. Many will sustain a professional career later in life; and, as such, medical device designers will need to fashion products aligned with a mature population’s lively lifestyle (Kapec, n.d.). Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is aware of the upcoming importance of medical devices, and will look at price elasticity, non-price factors, the industry as a whole and its market equilibrium, and related decisions based on the information.
The healthcare industry consists of many strengths and weaknesses during the improvement of patient safety, efficient operations, reduction of medical errors, and ensuring that they provide timely access to all patient information. This will have to still comply with all legal guidelines as they control costs and protect patient privacy. The adoption of advanced information technology is a popular strategy being used in the healthcare industry because it allows their weaknesses to be progressively diminished as they gain and use the opportunities necessary as an analytical tool. This would allow their capabilities to be further developed with the new technologies and processes used as they unify the adoption of IT standards. In order to stay competitive within the healthcare industry, then there must be specific actions and measures that must be taken to ensure a positive outcome. This includes external opportunities to increase the capability of the IT infrastructure in a national environment as the growth of industry standards are met in order to decrease the pressured threats of legal compliance through patient trust and the high cost of IT. The growing recognition of strategic leadership often leads to both improved financial stability and contact accessibility of the system. Some challenges that may occur within the healthcare system may cause issues in a hospital setting because of the centralized society of an organization. This is because of the different visions and
Many healthcare facilities now find themselves in an almost paradoxical predicament: inherently insecure and complex systems are required to be supported to maintain quality of healthcare, while security by mandate must be implemented and insured, (Mulch, 2004).#
A latest observe (the building safety In adulthood model) that tracks and measures observable software security practices throughout 12 middle regions currently included healthcare in its enterprise list. Healthcare came out on backside, falling brief on all 12 core regions measured. This could now not be quite as alarming if the industry weren’t suffering with a multi-billion dollar risk that’s so
The MSMC has established the mission, vision, and values statements within their organization, which is extremely important to them because of the importance of management. Both Larry and Sarah must believe in these core values because of the improvement in privacy and safety for their organization. The purpose should be to sustain and establish patients’ needs in a well-defined mission, vision, and value statement. Larry and Sarah must work together with culture groups or teams to provide patients with their ideal care. This aspect of care may connect with different organizational branches to create a strong relationship with their local community as they devise ways to implement an effective standard based system that ensures safety. Hence,
Containing ninety participants, 36% of the respondents were hospital CIOs and I.T. executives, 19% from integrated delivery systems headquarters, 19% from group practices, and 27% from other facilities. Survey results pertained to patient health records, electronic health record (EHR) certification, and other IT issues in healthcare. According to the survey, “81% of respondents said their I.T. budgets will grow, with the most common prediction being growth of 5% to 10%. Implementing electronic health records was the No. 1 software investment priority for the coming year for hospitals, integrated delivery systems and group practices alike.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) Interestingly, despite the economy at the time showing signs of a recession, “the vast majority of health care organizations expect their information technology budgets to grow during the next fiscal year, and this growth is driven primarily by a need to improve access to information for clinicians, the survey shows.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) This improved access to information can be applied to patients as well, as the push towards cloud storage and record/test results access alleviates the need to wait, call, and require record searches from the physician’s staff. On the subject of streamlining access to the implementation to patient EHRs, 19% of
The technical recommendation for addressing the security requirements in ABC Healthcare network needs a set of controls which include, access controls, audit controls and integrity controls. Access and audit controls ensure how healthcare professionals and other employees access sensitive data such as Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI), and the process of authentication. Personnel are often targets of social engineering attacks that potentially could result to security breaches and attacks; therefore, it is essential to provide adequate security awareness training to all new hires, as well as refresher training to current employees on a yearly basis. Ensuring personnel have an understanding of sensitive information, common security risks, and basic steps to prevent security breaches can develop habits that would make them less susceptible to social engineering attacks.
In addition to legal support, standards have been implemented to assist with health information security. For instance, the ISO/IEC 27002 is a standard that was created in the mid 1990’s to provide theory and recommended techniques for dealing with information security. Furthermore, the ISO 27799 supplements the ISO/IEC 27002 by providing more detailed guidance that has been customized for the healthcare industry. According to Fernández-Alemán, Señor, Lozoya, & Toval, the ISO 27799 standard “provides clear, concise and healthcare-specific guidance on the selection and implementation of security controls for the protection of health information, and is adaptable to the wide range of sizes, locations, and service delivery models found in healthcare.” Thus, it would appear that
This case study will examine how Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital identified a security breach in their facility and the course of action taken in an attempt to eradicate the problem. Security breaches are a major subject that must be addressed in the healthcare facility. With healthcare becoming more technology driven it is much easier to access data related to patients, specifically personal health information (PHI). Clearance is also a concern, not everyone in the healthcare facility should have access to a patient’s medical record. In order to protect PHIs, each facility must implement a policy and procedure related to internal, external, and third party security breaches. Security breaches can be detrimental to a healthcare facility and its patients, which is why breaches must be identified quickly for intervention and to minimize harmful outcomes to patients.
The process of change highlights issues of data security and access, the lack of which would clearly be defined as an error, and could have significant implications for patient safety. (Boaden & Joyce 2006)
vi)Access to the users (e.g employees in the DoD) should be provided based on their roles and all anti-malware software’s and patches should be up to date and should available to the staff immediately.
Medicinal services IT security managers can likewise have a troublesome time with regards to guaranteeing that HIPAA physical protections are constantly taken after. As innovation keeps on developing, so does the medicinal services industry. Portable PCs, tablets and mobile phones are rapidly getting to be plainly ordinary inside human services associations, as specialists and medical attendants can utilize the gadgets to rapidly impart to each other in a protected issue. Be that as it may, lost, lost, and stolen versatile gadgets are one of the main sources in medicinal services security ruptures. Physical protections are a basic part of human services associations, particularly with things being stolen from either offices or unapproved
All medical device companies and or life science institutions are required to track and report any possible interaction that can be viewed as a transfer of value when interacting with U.S. physicians, teaching hospitals, or teaching medical organizations under the Federal Sunshine Act. Starting January 2016, the U.S. Federal Government modified the U.S. Sunshine Act reporting requirements for medical device companies. Medical device companies must thoroughly detail the product marketed name associated with transfer of value that is reported when interaction with a physician takes place in and outside any health care setting. In the past, medical device companies were only required by the federal government to report product used by family to which a specific product belonged or was associated with to report the transfer of value. The Sunshine Act requires Medtronic and other medical device companies or life science companies to track and manage any and all data pertaining to all educational or marketing material presented to physicians and allied care providers. All Sunshine Act reporting information recorded by field professionals or any individuals who come into contact with healthcare providers is recorded, managed, and stored by Medtronic’s compliance and the Medtronic legal department. Medtronic has to follow Sunshine Act Section 6002. Section 6002 is the transparency reports and reporting of physician ownership or investment interest of the Patient Protection and
Nowadays, most clinicians are criticizing about the process time it takes to access patients’ health results in the information system to provide quality care. For that reason, I wouldn’t be surprised if a study said that most hospitals surveyed preferred a monolithic strategy over the best of breed strategy. Therefore, the best of breed strategy have several nurses and doctors complaining about the different systems they must sign in using a changed username and password to retrieve health information result on a patient. However, that delay can restrict them from making a noble clinical decision regarding patient safety.
In addition to the threats and vulnerabilities inherited with wired local area networks (LAN) there are many more risks associated with the use of wireless and mobile technologies. The use of laptops, smartphones, and tablets create vulnerabilities that can fall outside our network securities measure. Attackers will be able to bypass the firewalls and gain direct access to the doctor’s data. Once an intruder has access to the network the intruder will be able to launch denial of service