Patients’ data protection
Introduction
The use of computers has become an essential part of the provision of quality health care. The computer systems have allowed healthcare organizations to store crucial patient data, for example, concerning medical records. Data security is a comprehensive action that requires efficiency in controlling access to patients’ critical data while enabling retrieval and easy access to the medical records to the healthcare providers who require the data. Since storage and protection of healthcare data is vital, healthcare providers need to be educated on the storage data systems to prevent hackers who can access the healthcare information and jeopardize the healthcare provision.
Q1. Application of educational methods in teaching healthcare personnel
The learning book provided in this course outlines and illustrates the educational methods that educators can use to guide healthcare personnel with knowledge on quality health care provision, particularly data management. The first educational method is self-guided learning. Educators have the responsibility of supporting nurses to learn about data management through the self-guided. Healthcare organization is required to provide nurses with learning resources and conducive environment for learning and working.
Self-guided learning requires a healthcare provider to research clinical based-knowledge on their own. The healthcare organization provides nurses with learning resources and time to study. For example, in the case of data management in a healthcare organization, nurses, and doctors. For instance, in Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR), educators can assign healthcare providers with questions to research the best way to protect patients’ data (EHR). Self-guided methods also allow individuals to form teams during research.
The best way to evaluate self-guided learning is by allowing healthcare providers to demonstrate what they learned as a group. An educator can evaluate Healthcare personnel by allowing then to maintain EHR software by their specific period (Brydges, Carnahan, Rose & Dubrowski, 2010). Although self-directed learning should be applied as a refresher since when educators use it as the first educational method, healthcare personnel may have so many questions to be addressed.
The second method addressed in the book is the instructor-led educational method. The technique requires an educator to provide all the information needed by the healthcare personnel. An educator is required to provide notes and demonstrate when needed. The educator can show how data storage software is used, maintained, and retrieving data. The best thing with the instructor-led educational method, individuals are allowed to ask questions. If there are many healthcare staff, an educator can connect a computer and a projector to incorporate PowerPoint and slide shows.
The third method is the e-learning method, which involves conducting learning through technology integration. Healthcare personnel is provided with learning materials online to access, read, and internalize the information on their own. Tablets and smartphones can also support e-learning. Researches show that e-learning is cost-effective and can lead to almost the same outcome in face-to-face training. Therefore, the e-learning method does not require the involvement of a live facilitator or educator. Still, e-learning may include quiz questions, videos, audios, and other interactivity, the computer system, and the learner that facilitate instant feedback.
The evaluation process allows educators to determine whether the objective of learning was achieved. A demonstration can be used by healthcare personnel to use data storage or handle a patient under different circumstances. Through demonstration, an educator can be able to correct healthcare person in case of a mistake. A trainer can also expose Healthcare personnel to questions about activities learned. The poorly performed area by the healthcare personnel can be reviewed through instruction-led training and self-guided learning. Healthcare providers need to be educated on emerging technology since they are crucial in providing quality healthcare.
Q2. Protection of patients’ data.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) needs all the organizations providing healthcare services to provide integrity, availability, and confidentiality of patient health information (PHI). HIPPA is, therefore, mandatory for an organization to come up with security mechanisms that protect sensitive patients’ data in a healthcare organization. Advancement in technology has allowed healthcare organizations to protect their clients’ healthcare information. Still, since technology is dynamic, organizations should continuously upgrade technological systems that store patients’ healthcare data.
Healthcare practices and policies are the essential security mechanisms in ensuring crucial data of patients are secure. Healthcare policies outline procedures for disciplining offenders, detecting violations, and preventing data loss. Unlawful interference of patients’ data can lead individuals to the lawsuit if any organization policy is under the breach. The other security mechanism applied by healthcare organizations to protect the patients’ healthcare data is technology. For example, the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system has facilitated secure storage and protection of patients’ healthcare data.
Healthcare personnel should ensure no paper records are left unattended, and no electronic storage device is left logged in. Many times unauthorized users get access to the network systems when they have little information concerning a storage system through a written document or by accessing a computer left without been logged out. There should also policies prohibiting healthcare personnel from sharing crucial information about a patient.
On the other hand, the healthcare administration has the mandate to conduct a risk assessment of all the information systems storing the patients’ data under HIPAA security rules and privacy (Luxton, Kayl & Mishkind, 2012). The risk assessment enables the healthcare administration to uncover vulnerability, identify threats, and continuously review security policies.
Healthcare organizations limit the level of access to data patients’ information through various methods. When patients’ data electronically store like in the EHR, healthcare organizations protect the data by installing firewalls to block unauthorized people from accessing the healthcare data and networks. Installation of a Spam filter protects Malware and malicious email.
If there are multiple members of healthcare regularly accessing patients’ healthcare data for various reasons, an organization must manage the identity of users. Healthcare users should only have access to the data system in the area of their specialization. Additionally, the coordination of logging should be through the organization’s computer system. The automation of healthcare data systems enables paper trail and facilitate the safety and efficiency of data stored.
The healthcare facility should also ensure a network accessible by the public does not create vulnerability to access the private information of patients. The best way to achieve this is by creating sub-networks that separate protected networks that convey crucial patient data and network medical devices from networks accessible by guests.
Patient data is a critical element in the healthcare system. Keeping patient data confidential and safe is one way of gaining trust from a patient in the healthcare system. Patients do not provide detailed information about their health status when they realize that the healthcare data storage system is questionable. A healthcare organization should implement pulverizing, pulping, burning, or shredding to ensure a patient’s data is not read by an unauthorized person as required by HIPAA. The use of Data-Shield makes an organization able to destroy unrequired files technologically. Thus Patients’ data become irretrievable pieces within the computer system. Handling sensitive information should also be a responsibility of an authorized person, but not every person in the healthcare system ensures accountability if there is a security breach.
Q3. Education on phishing and spam email
Spam is also known as junk mail; it came to existence since the establishment of the internet. Spam establishment was a way of providing a platform for selling products to a large market. After obtaining emails from many email users, spammers can send hundreds or thousands of offers to individual emails. Examples of spam are unwanted newsletters, donation solicitations, adult content, and coupons. Although spam email is not security threatening as phishing, they are also a sign of malicious.
On the other hand, phishing is created by malignant to attack and harm individuals or critical corporate information. Intention Designing of Phishing messages was to messages appear as if they are emanating from a trusted sender. Phishing messages obtain personal information about cash advances, passwords, and bank accounts numbers (Fette, Sadeh & Tomasic, 2007). Healthcare personnel needs education on how to detect and manage spam and phishing messages to safeguard the organization and patients’ private data. Various educational methods can impact healthcare providers with spam and phishing knowledge.
When providing education on risks of phishing and spam emails to healthcare personnel, instructor-led training educational methods will allow me to demonstrate all the necessary knowledge concerning prevention and how to manage phishing and spam emails from interfering with crucial healthcare data. Using slide show, I will reveal to healthcare personnel about various things about sent emails, such as a message sent from an unauthorized person but the email appearing from emanating from an authorized person within the organization seeking provision crucial information about the organization.
Additionally, using the slide shows will be easier to display how the email language is enticing when enquiring about its data. Healthcare providers should know the kind of messages they should never respond to senders. The healthcare personnel should also distinguish between the genuine information within the organization from spam and phishing messages.
The other educational method that is appropriate is e-learning. E-learning execution depends on the use of the web and the internet. Through e-learning, the knowledge about phishing and spam email can are accessible through the internet. Moreover, e-learning staff can access educative materials online and gain education even if there are no geographical areas. Additionally, PowerPoint and slides application can also facilitate in e-learning. Still, the challenges with e-learning healthcare personnel may not clearly understand the dangers of spam, and phishing emails since the trainer and healthcare providers may not share the same room during training challenging to ask questions.
A trainer needs to ascertain where the intended purpose of the training is achieved. After the training, it is essential to expose healthcare personnel with multiple emails from spam, phishing, and some from the organization’s authorized people. Healthcare providers will be required to identify genuine messages from malicious ones. The process will determine whether the healthcare personnel got the intended education.
Conclusion
In conclusion, healthcare organizations use advanced technology to ensure that patients’ data is safe and protected to ensure the data retrieved during treatment is the real one. Advancement in technology also led to the improvement of hackers’ knowledge of attacking and destroying healthcare information. Therefore, healthcare personnel needs experience in using data systems and how to secure the data from hackers’ interference through education methods such as instructor-led training and e-learning.
References
Brydges, R., Carnahan, H., Rose, D., & Dubrowski, A. (2010). Comparing self‐guided learning and educator‐guided learning formats for simulation‐based clinical training. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(8), 1832-1844.
Fette, I., Sadeh, N., & Tomasic, A. (2007, May). Learning to detect phishing emails. In Pro Brydges, R., Carnahan, H., Rose, D., & Dubrowski, A. (2010). proceedings of the 16th international conference on World Wide Web (pp. 649-656).
Luxton, D. D., Kayl, R. A., & Mishkind, M. C. (2012). mHealth data security: The need for HIPAA-compliant standardization. Telemedicine and e-Health, 18(4), 284-288.