Security of Health Care Records Essay

" (Harman, Flite, and Bond, 2012) the key to the preservation of confidentiality is "making sure that only authorized individuals have access to that information. The process of controlling access -- limiting who can see what -- begins with authorizing users." (Harman, Flite, and Bond, 2012) Employers are held accountable under the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules for their employee's actions. The federal agency that holds responsibility for the development of information security guidelines is the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST further defines information security as "the preservation of data confidentiality, integrity, availability" stated to be commonly referred to as "the CIA triad." (Harman, Flite, and Bond, 2012)

III. Risk Reduction Strategies

Strategies for addressing barriers and overcoming these barriers are inclusive of keeping clear communication at all organizational levels throughout the process and acknowledging the impact of the organization's culture as well as capitalizing on all the organizational strengths and the maintenance of realistic expectations. (Kopala and Mitchell, 2011, paraphrased) Other strategies cited include "using effective change management strategies, and having a shared vision. Achieving user buy-in, providing quality adequate training that sufficiently prepares staff and fits staff needs, attending to workflow needs and patterns, having adequate and sufficient policies to guide implementation and maintenance of the system, ensuring awareness of those policies, and having a contingency plan for anticipated system downtime and other potential malfunctions are also suggested strategies." (Kopala and Mitchell, 2011)

Bibliography

Harman, LB, Flite, CA, and Bond, K. (2012) Electronic Health Records: Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security. State of the Art and Science. Virtual Mentor. Sept. 2012, Vol. 14 No. 9. Retrieved from: http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2012/09/stas1-1209.html

Kopala, B. And Mitchell, ME (2011) Use of Digital health Records Raises Ethical Concerns. JONA's Healthcare Law, Ethics, and Regulation. Jul/Sep 2011. Lippincott's Nursing Center. Retrieved from: http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/cearticle?tid=1238212#P77 P85 P86 P87