In: Operations Management
It is a common misconception that the health information is non-public and maybe not be protected. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is a privacy law on healthcare data which was introduced in the US to affirm the rights that the patients had over their own health information regardless of the form or type that it is in. Such laws which secure the information specific to health data are absent in many other countries around the world. Security refers to the need for specific protections to safeguard your electronic health information. In order to secure the information is securely protected many methods have been introduced to safeguard the data. In the EHR, some of the major security measures are as follows:
1. Access Control: In the Access Control systems, there is a block created in order to access the data itself. The data is protected with passkeys which are given only to a limited number of people. Without the passkey one will not be able to access the data itself, this is one way of securing the data
2. Encryption of data: Encryption is done for highly sensitive data, it transforms the information stored into a computer logical format which cannot be understood by all. The information is only available when certain people log in or access it and this process which termed as decryption again requires a key for the information to be decrypted.
3. Audit Trial: This security tool will keep a track of whoever accessed the data. It also maintains the history of who made the changes and what changes were made. This is an important feature that helps in ensuring that the information is not modified and by keeping a check on the history the access limits can be set.
4. Laws: There also exist numerous laws which require no permission of the healthcare officials to give notice the patient a notice of a breach. This demand helps patients grasp if one thing has gone wrong with the protection of their info and helps keep providers in charge of EHR protection.