Reference no: EM132196515

Discussion-1 : Electronic Health Record: Definition

The paper chat which contains patient data, basically which is in the digital version. This will make the patient data available to the authorized users in the very secure way. It is mainly maintained and generated only by the authorized individual. These are created in the way that it should be shared to other organizations, labs, schools, work clinics, so that they will maintain information related to that individual. EHR mainly contains Treatment plans, medications, allergies, test results of individual, radiology images.

Redaction: In general, it means editing or correcting the original form of data before giving to the other departments. In some of the department it is very important, as EHR contains the sensitive information it should be redacted.

My personal suggestion here is, as the data should be seen by other departments if we pass to labs or schools to know the health condition of the individual, we should encrypt the data before handling to any other organization. They should have some authorized software's to decrypt that data.

Let me example with example, some of the companies stores EHR or PII of the individual, which they will need for only certain period of time, as they won't use after that if they still store in the database, there is rise of hacking that data, if they redact that the chances of hacking will be less.

Different ways of redaction:

a) Page Location: If suppose we will be getting personal data or EHR of all individuals in the same location of consistent type in file, it is easy to hack that data. The solution here is jumble the consistent data using some tools or software's. It is not only up to file level, it applied to the data base too.

b) Pattern Matching: This is also one of the ways to redact, the difference between these and above one is the way the data is getting, if we suppose take account number it has some alphabets and some numbers, just use the tool to script that.

The ideal conditions to redact the document is after completing the work, before the disposal. It is not good idea to redact if the work is in progress.

According to the HIPAA they passed a rule that no EHR should be redacted, it should be in the way as it is previously. Although protecting data in EHR is important it doesn't mean the data should be redacted. Any one who tried to access the data who has no privileges will be fined. The ultracareful and attentive steps should be taking to protect that HER.

In general redaction and deidentification can be done manually

Advantages of EHR:

1)It has exact and full information about the patient till the date.

2)It helps in sharing the patient information securely with other departments.

3)It enable provider for improving the efficiency and meet their goals.

4)Reliable way to transfer the data.

5)Communication and interaction with the patient is more effective if the record has history.

6)Financially thinking as no paper involved in this cost will be reduced.

Discussion 2:

It is the responsibility of healthcare leader to keep the security of patient records. Preserving the privacy, accuracy, and control of patient data is one of the most important roles in the care setting. The extended enforcement of HIPAA, leaders supervision, the disclosure of information, need to be more cautious now than they have been in the past.

Their procedures for managing the release of protected information required to meet the requirements of the law and what's in the best interest of their patients (Tucker, et al., 2016).

A major grow in HIPAA enforcement is underway now that the regulation has matured, and enforcement of violates is happening at a more quick pace driving healthcare's leaders to increase IT spend to execute systems that better protect health information of their patient. Planned to protect the privacy and security of healthcare information, HIPAA enforcement has been missing up to this point mostly because federal funds to maintain it has been limited (Nelson, 2015).

In the year 2011, the HHS awarded a $9.2 million contract to KPMG to launch the audit program as a directive by the HITECH Act. The HITECH act extended some privacy and security requirements of HIPAA and set the stage for greater enforcement such as increasing the scope of the law, enacting more significant penalties for noncompliance, adding breach notification requirements to entities and Opening the way for implementation by state attorneys general.

The HITECH act and increased HIPAA regulations enhanced the responsibility of health systems to protect and manage the information of the patient (Emam, et al., 2009). As such, tools providing redaction abilities that automate the elimination of PHI, and integrate with presented technology like electronic health records to search and eliminate any protected information are becoming a necessity.

The privacy rules of HIPAA provided standards to protect personal information and medical information of patients. It applies to healthcare clearinghouses, health plans, and providers that contain some healthcare transactions electronically. The rules put a restriction on release of information without the authorization of the patient.

The privacy rule allows two methods of redaction such as the absence of information that could be used to individual identity and a formal determination by a qualified expert (Divanisa, Loukides, & Sun, 2014). Removing risks associated with the release of PHI is possible with automated redaction solutions. They remove data fields such as names of patients, medical lists and other general information in the health record. The systems save money and time and ensure HIPAA compliance throughout ROI for health systems.

The HIPAA Safe Harbor standards, 18 identifiers related with the patient, their household members, relatives, and employers must be removed including name, mobile numbers, fax numbers, email addresses, and medical record numbers. The healthcare organizations find new ways to secure the health records of the patient (Narayanan, Huey, & Felten, 2016).

To mitigate HIPAA infractions, healthcare providers should consider shifts in IT spending for protective technologies. As the execution of systems such as EHRs can direct to leaner, well-organized procedures in the care setting, the same can be said for automated redaction. These solutions make sure security during the ROI procedure and give extra security to violating.

Reference

Divanisa, A. G., Loukides, G., & Sun, J. (2014). Publishing data from electronic health records while preserving privacy: A survey of algorithms. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 50, 4-19.

Emam, K. E., Dankar, F. K., Issa, R., Jonker, E., Amyot, D., Cogo, E., . . . Bottomley, J. (2009). A Globally Optimal k-Anonymity Method for the De-Identification of Health Data. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 16(5), 670-682.

Narayanan, A., Huey, J., & Felten, E. W. (2016). A Precautionary Approach to Big Data Privacy. Data Protection on the Move, 357-385.