Healthcare organizations have a duty of care towards their patients. They are there to improve their patient’s health and protect their problems. 

But their duty of care does not stop there. 

In order to carry out their valuable work, healthcare organizations must handle a lot of vital and sensitive data about all of their patients. 

This information will have details about specific health concerns, medicines that they are on, as well as personal data such as social security details,  date of birth, and addresses. 

In the wrong hands, this data could cause an organization’s patient considerable damage. There would be enough details available for a criminal to take out credit in the patient’s name. If this data is corrupted or lost, it could have a severe impact on the patient’s future health. 

Protecting patient data is essential. 

But how can healthcare organizations ensure that they are doing this?

Understand The Regulations 

Healthcare organizations have to adhere to stringent data protection regulations. In the US, the HIPAA regulations cover organizations that deliver direct care such as hospitals, doctor’s surgeries, and dentists. It also needs to be followed by insurance companies that handle medical records and law firms that deal with medical malpractice or personal injury cases. In the EU, the GDPR regulations cover every type of business, however, it has specific checklists for healthcare organizations. 

Keeping up-to-date on the regulations and understanding how they apply to your healthcare organization is vital. 

To overlook or ignore regulations could land your organization with a fine. 

Make Use Of A Specialist IT Company 

Understanding and applying the stringent regulations that apply to all healthcare organizations will mean seeking the right advice. If you are a small business, you might not have your own IT department. You may lack the skills and experience to understand exactly what you need to do in order to ensure your business is fully compliant with regulations. 

Healthcare IT Solutions are a good way of ensuring that your business is equipped to deal with potential threats while meeting the needs of regulations. By using an experienced managed service provider that specializes in the specific data protection and cybersecurity concerns of healthcare organizations, you will be able to get the advice that applies to your business. 

Include Best Practice In Your Policies And Procedures

Everything that you do in your healthcare organization could have an impact on the security of your patient records. Having best practice applied in all of your policies, procedures, and training will help to minimize the risk. 

Changing passwords every month will mean that the chances of a hacker walking undetected into your systems through the front entrance. Make sure the password is unique and complicated. It should not be shared between colleagues. Everyone should have their own password. 

Make use of multifactor login technology. Include a personal question, or even use facial recognition or fingerprint logins. Investing in this type of technology is a small price in comparison to the loss you could face if you do not protect your patient’s data.