Risk management in healthcare

28.04.2020

Our health information is a private issue. For a number of reasons, people’s health information being shared could result in negative consequences. HIPPA in the United States has established that no medical insurance provider has the right to share it. One reason is because often times employers are required to cover their employees’ health insurance and if they discover that their employee has a history of a serious illness, they might not hire them in order to avoid having to take on that expense. On top of that, it’s sometimes quite embarrassing for one’s personal health details to be shared due to the embarrassment. Meanwhile, healthcare information technology security is more important than ever, both for insurance companies and employers bringing on employees. For the latter, this absolutely cannot be ignored, in part because this is grounds for lawsuits. A business owner who has spent years of his life and devoted all of his creativity and energy to building his own company could see it all vanish in an instant in the event that a hacker is able to obtain such compromising or embarrassing information.

This applies even more so to a medical facility. Hospital risk management is a much greater challenge in that respect. In addition to this, a medical care facility also has to worry about violence, compensation in the event of injuries or malpractice, employee and management actions, technical failures, and more. In addition to sophisticated authentication protection and other methods for barring malicious outsiders, information security and privacy in healthcare also require policy be well established to protect against insiders who at times may be the greater threat. 

This is usually due to compliance issues in healthcare. A number of compliance issues in pharmaceutical industry are notorious as well. For one, sometimes supplies are not properly sanitized and maintained, putting consumers at risk. This most often is a result of a lack of written procedures or employees’ failure to adhere to such rules. Sometimes the language in such document goes on too long and does not provide concise, step-by-step instructions. It’s also best if they are part of the process for creating such guidance documents and are able to provide feedback and communicate. Furthermore, sometimes test instruments and procedures, as well as prescription amounts and instructions, pose risks.

Implementing Information Security in Healthcare (Building a Security Program)

In addition to proper management and sound policy, one of the fundamental requirements for healthcare information security  is that the software developer has major expertise and is well informed on the latest scams and risks. When information is encrypted and both sides have the means to decode such an encryption, this renders it extremely hard for a malicious person to understand the message. A company does not have the time to keep up with all of the latest risks on its own. Its time is better spent delegating this job to a company that specializes in risk management. These risks are always changing. 

Information security in healthcare managing risk presents a situation in which people may be discriminated against in jobs in illegal situations. It also offers an opportunity for malicious people to engage in blackmail in an attempt to diminish the person’s ability to do his or her job. In the event that one receives bad medical news that is serious, the person might not be ready to share it right away or it might not be something that we would want to share with certain loved ones. Everybody has a right to their own privacy.

Employee monitoring Risk management Confidential documents