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Designing secure health solutions with Azure
Receive guidance and considerations you need to make regarding the secure use and implementation of Azure cloud technology
Since its launch in 2010, Microsoft Azure has gained rapid adoption from organizations of all sizes around the world, spanning many industries. The users of Azure benefit from agility, reduced costs and complexity, limitless scale, and innovation made possible by cloud computing.
For organizations in regulated industries, such as healthcare, where laws regulate protected health information (PHI), the need to understand how cloud adoption affects their privacy, security, and regulatory compliance posture is paramount. These organizations should seek deeper understanding and guidance in solution design and cloud deployment operations.
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With healthcare IT being a popular topic in the news today, the digital revolution continues to address how technology can actually improve healthcare. Successful healthcare organizations are implementing modern technology into everyday business. Delivering better care and staying up to date with new technologies can improve the overall business of healthcare industries. With new devices offering healthcare capabilities and benefits, healthcare industries need to ensure they stay up to date. The great news is that everybody wins with smarter technology in healthcare.
Use Modern Technology:
Today, most health care providers use mobile devices such as laptops or tablets to review patient and clinical information. Technology has enabled doctors to use e-mail, texts, videos, and conference facilities to consult colleagues and experts from all over the world. With the touch of a technology device, doctors can access thousands of pages of medical textbooks and case studies.
Technology is changing and improving every day and successful healthcare industries are implementing modern communication services.
Implement Effective Communication System:
When technology integration is at its best, the person using it doesn’t stop to think that they are using a technology tool - it is second nature. An effective communication system can give employees the option to work from anywhere and collaborate with patients and colleagues. This allows both physicians and patients to keep a comprehensive, updated record of all health information.
Train Users:
Educate and re-educate employees on new technology. Ensure training plans and services are flexible enough, both virtual and onsite, to accommodate the range of users within each community. Be clear that your team will be shadowing and learning from trainers that have specific technology, tool and data experience. Clarify that their role is to pass along this expertise, not just deliver analytics.
IT Security Partners:
Before selecting new state of the art technologies, do your research and ensure you have an effective IT department or managed service provider to implement and manage the system. Specialized support when getting started with new technologies can truly help transform care delivery. Managers should hold a kick-off meeting with key stakeholders to define the upcoming changes, reinforce the reasons the technology is being introduced, and clearly outline the roles and responsibilities for all involved.
Considering outsourcing your IT needs? In search of a Managed Service Provider? Fill out the contact form below or call us at 800-550-3795 to speak with an expert.
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Healthcare Staffing Agency Given An Opportunity To Grow
Industry: Healthcare
Business Needs: A healthcare staffing firm with about 20 employees had been with the same independent IT consultant since they were less than half that size. While the independent consultant did a great job supporting them in the early days, he was having difficulty keeping up with their day to day needs as they continued to grow. Things became even more difficult if he was out sick or on vacation. With improved economic conditions as well as new legislation for the healthcare industry, the client felt this would be the proper climate to grow their business. Although to make this a reality they would need guidance on what technology to leverage as well as a way to support their company as the number of employees continued to increase. They also wanted to provide employees access to work remotely from the office.
Solution: Managed Solution first partnered with the healthcare staffing firm by doing an assessment of their current environment while also taking on the responsibilities of the day to day IT support. The assessment provided the client insight to what was really going on in their network. A server that was thought to be only a year old was revealed to be over 4 years old, out of warranty, and approaching capacity. Also, it was not configured and patched properly which was the cause of some their daily challenges. What was also revealed was that their back-up solution had not worked properly for over a year. This was troubling due to compliance standards they thought were being met. Managed Solution was able to design and implement a new network infrastructure that would not only help them meet their HIPAA and Joint Commission requirements but also improve the way their employees were able to work together.
Success: Managed Solution was originally chosen to partner with the client due to their growing demands for day to day IT support that were not being met. While this was addressed, the true benefit to the client was making them aware of why they were having challenges, both known and unknown, and providing them guidance to overcoming them. What is probably more exciting were the recommendations in technology that have helped them grow their business. After 1 year of working with Managed Solution, they were able to increase their staff by 25% because they know they now have a way to support them. With their continued success, they are now anticipating further growth by an additional 200% over the next 2-3 years.
Services/Resources:
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Mobile device management (MDM) is an industry term for the administration of mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers. MDM is usually implemented with the use of a third party product that has management features for particular vendors of mobile devices.
With the compliance concerns that all medical organizations face, healthcare mobile device management needs to be taken very seriously. To ensure HIPAA privacy and security rules, healthcare facilities need to ensure they are taking the necessary steps when managing mobile devices in their organization.
Organizations must be up to date with changing trends, guidelines, laws, and government regulations to minimize their risk – follow these 5 steps to protect the health information patients entrust to you!
5 Steps to Successful Medical Mobile Device Management:
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Decide how to allow your professionals to use their mobile devices. Whether mobile devices will be used to access, receive, transmit, or store patients' health information or be used as part of your organizations internal network or systems. Understand how to avoid risks to your organization by obtaining expert advice to ensure you meet regulations and are compliant before granting access to your professionals.
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Consider the risks when using mobile devices to transmit the health information your organization holds by conducting a risk analysis to identify threats and vulnerabilities.
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Identify a mobile device risk management strategy, including privacy and security safeguards. A risk management strategy will help your organization develop and implement mobile device safeguards to reduce risks identified in the risk analysis, including an evaluation and regular maintenance of the mobile device safeguards you put in place.
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Develop, document, and implement your organization's mobile device policies and procedures to safeguard health information.
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Conduct mobile device privacy and security awareness and ongoing training for providers and professionals.
Managed Solution helps its healthcare partners face daily challenges, some of which include managing applications, data, and security. These three areas are of particular concern for your IT department. Our healthcare partners have had success combating these challenges by implementing Mobile Device Management solutions.
Managed Solution is the premier provider of IT support services and technology recommendations for the healthcare industry. Founded in 2002, we enjoy a proud tradition of partnering with the IT staff of the many organizations we work with. We can even act as your IT team. For more information on healthcare specific solutions contact Managed Solution at 800-550-3795 or fill out the contact form.
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On Thursday, September 4, huffingtonpost.com reported how a hacker successfully broke into HealthCare.gov and installed malicious software on one of its servers.
The security of HealthCare.gov is a sensitive issue and risk assessments are being taken to address the vulnerabilities and increase security. These recent high-profile data breaches are leading healthcare industries to modify their approach with new security software and processes.
"Data was not transmitted outside the agency, and the website was not specifically targeted," said Kevin Griffis, a senior adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services. "We have taken measures to further strengthen security."
Steps to prevent security hacks:
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Risk Assessment: Remind employees to be watchful of electronic devices and/or paper records left unattended. More often than not data breaches occur due to theft of these items from a home, office or vehicle. While it is IT’s job to safeguard patient information, employees should be reminded to do their part in keeping data safe as well.
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Sub-networks: Ensure that networks made available for public use do not expose private patient information. One way of achieving this is to create sub-networks dedicated to guest activity and separate more secure networks for medical devices and applications that transmit and carry sensitive patient data.
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Identity: With so many members of the healthcare system frequently accessing patient information, it is important to carefully manage identity of users. For instance, make sure users at each level are only granted access to information pertinent to their position and that log on/off procedures are easy on shared machines. Automation of this system helps create a “paper trail” and ensures efficiency and safety for all involved.
Considering outsourcing your IT needs? In search of a Managed Service Provider? Fill out the contact form below or call us at 800-550-3795 to speak with an expert.
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With healthcare IT being a popular topic in the news today, the digital revolution continues to address how technology can actually improve healthcare. Successful healthcare organizations are implementing modern technology into everyday business. Delivering better care and staying up to date with new technologies can improve the overall business of healthcare industries. With new devices offering healthcare capabilities and benefits, healthcare industries need to ensure they stay up to date. The great news is that everybody wins with smarter technology in healthcare.
Use Modern Technology:
Today, most health care providers use mobile devices such as laptops or tablets to review patient and clinical information. Technology has enabled doctors to use e-mail, texts, videos, and conference facilities to consult colleagues and experts from all over the world. With the touch of a technology device, doctors can access thousands of pages of medical textbooks and case studies.
Technology is changing and improving every day and successful healthcare industries are implementing modern communication services.
Implement Effective Communication System:
When technology integration is at its best, the person using it doesn’t stop to think that they are using a technology tool - it is second nature. An effective communication system can give employees the option to work from anywhere and collaborate with patients and colleagues. This allows both physicians and patients to keep a comprehensive, updated record of all health information.
Train Users:
Educate and re-educate employees on new technology. Ensure training plans and services are flexible enough, both virtual and onsite, to accommodate the range of users within each community. Be clear that your team will be shadowing and learning from trainers that have specific technology, tool and data experience. Clarify that their role is to pass along this expertise, not just deliver analytics.
IT Security Partners:
Before selecting new state of the art technologies, do your research and ensure you have an effective IT department or managed service provider to implement and manage the system. Specialized support when getting started with new technologies can truly help transform care delivery. Managers should hold a kick-off meeting with key stakeholders to define the upcoming changes, reinforce the reasons the technology is being introduced, and clearly outline the roles and responsibilities for all involved.
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In an effort to encourage advancement in our health care system, Medicare and Medicaid are offering incentives for meaningful use of Electronic Health Records. The goal is to improve health care quality, safety and efficiency through the use of EHR and corresponding IT capabilities. Currently, legislation (HITECH) grants the Department of Health & Human Services authority to develop measures that will improve health care through the use of information technology and secure EHR exchange. There are four regulations currently in place; two that aim to define meaningful use objectives and two that identify the required technical capabilities.
Once certified EHR technologies are adopted, there are specific measures and objectives that must be met using the stages outlined below. These stages are set to evolve over the next several years and aim to achieve what Medicare and Medicaid define as meaningful use of Electronic Health Records.
Table Adapted from HealthIT.Gov – Meaningful Use
Since the overall goal is to improve the quality and consistency of health care, meaningful use of patient information can lead to a variety of benefits for all parties involved. With better access to complete and accurate information providers will know more about a patient’s history which can lead to earlier diagnoses and better management of health issues. Furthermore, meaningful use of Electronic Health Records can facilitate the flow of information between doctors’ offices, hospitals and across health systems. Patients may also feel empowered by having access to their records as they can now take accountability for their health and share information with family members if necessary. Finally, eligible providers can earn incentive payments for improving health care systems through promotion of EHR facilitation.
Are you still unclear about meaningful use standards and incentives, or how adopt, implement or upgrade your organization’s EHR technologies? There are several resources made available by The Department of Health and Human Services to help providers make educated decisions regarding the use of their Electronic Health Records.
For more information on how Managed Solution can play an integral role in your Health IT systems and qualify you for EHR incentives, contact us at 800-550-3795 or fill out the contact form to the right and an expert will contact you shortly.
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