Securing Personal Medical Records: Best Practices for Patient Privacy
The healthcare industry has undergone significant transformation in the past two decades, with technological advancements resulting in the digitization of medical records. Personal medical records are highly sensitive and confidential documents that contain critical information about a patient's physical, emotional, and mental health history along with medication history, allergies, surgeries, and other relevant details.
The digitalization of medical records has not only facilitated access to records and enhanced the delivery of care to patients but has also raised concerns around patient privacy. With the proliferation of electronic health records (EHR) systems and healthcare mobile applications used by doctors, healthcare providers, and patients, securing personal medical records is becoming increasingly challenging.
Healthcare data breaches have emerged as a significant threat to patient privacy, with cybercriminals increasingly targeting medical records for their financial gains. According to statistics, the healthcare industry is one of the most targeted sectors, accounting for nearly 26% of all data breaches globally in 2020.
Therefore, securing personal medical records and protecting patient privacy should be a top priority for healthcare organizations, practitioners, and patients. Here are some Best Practices for securing personal medical records and maintaining patient privacy.
1. Compliance with HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law that sets guidelines for healthcare providers, insurers, and practitioners to protect patient privacy. It mandates healthcare organizations to implement security and privacy measures to ensure that electronic personal health information (ePHI) is secure, confidential, and tamper-proof.
2. Employee Training and Education: Healthcare organizations and practitioners must provide regular training and education to their employees on data security, patient privacy, and compliance regulations. This includes basic cyber hygiene practices such as password hygiene, email security, and web browsing best practices. Employees must understand the importance of safeguarding patient information and the consequences of failing to follow protocols.
3. Implementing Access Controls: Access controls determine who can access personal medical records and what they can do with the data. By implementing access controls, healthcare organizations and practitioners can restrict access to patient information only to those who need it to provide care. This includes using secure passwords, multi-factor authentication, and role-based access control (RBAC).
4. Reliable Third-Party Providers: Healthcare providers often work with third-party vendors to provide services such as billing, telemedicine, and software support. These third-party providers must be reliable and secure to avoid data breaches. Healthcare providers must perform due diligence to ensure that third-party vendors comply with HIPAA regulations and have robust security protocols in place.
5. Encryption: Encryption is a critical security measure to ensure that personal medical records are secure and confidential. Encryption transforms data into unbreakable codes that can only be accessed by authorized users with the decryption key. For instance, encrypting data while transmitting it through email, text, or messaging ensured that data is not intercepted by unauthorized users.
6. Secure Mobile Applications: Healthcare providers are using mobile applications to offer improved care and enhance consumer engagement. However, as more people use mobile applications, healthcare organizations must ensure that these applications are secure, compliant, and protect personal medical records. It is essential to include robust authentication protocols, end-to-end encryption, and secure programming practices during mobile application development.
7. Regular Audits and Monitoring: Healthcare organizations and practitioners must regularly audit and monitor their systems for unauthorized access, abnormal activity, and suspicious traffic. Continuous monitoring helps to detect data breaches and malicious activity in real-time and take immediate action to contain the breach.
In conclusion, protecting patient privacy and securing personal medical records is a shared responsibility between healthcare organizations, practitioners, and patients. The best practices mentioned above can help healthcare providers and practitioners maintain best security practices, protect patient information, and build trust with patients. Despite the challenges involved in securing personal medical records, it is vital to implement these measures to prevent data breaches and protect patients' sensitive and confidential information.
Check out HelpRange
Check out our product HelpRange. It is designed to securely store (GDPR compliant), share, protect,
sell, e-sign and analyze usage of your documents.