With the increasing adoption of health technology — and the expanding cyber threat landscape — ensuring HIPAA compliance is a must, according to TechWorm.
Here are four ways technology is helping healthcare professionals abide by HIPAA.
1. Secure texting. Being able to communicate or share patient information with fellow care providers immediately is crucial in every hospital. Hospital secure texting solutions help healthcare providers across large, busy facilities communicate quickly and safely.
2. Cloud storage. The cloud offers an off-site, virtual storage environment for keeping patient records that were long hosted on paper in filing cabinets. In the cloud, patient records cannot be damaged by natural disasters, fire or theft, and anything stored in the cloud can be heavily protected with passwords.
3. Password managers. Healthcare organizations are pressured to ensure their employees abide by all security protocols, including strong password use. When one password is used for multiple accounts, or by multiple employees in the organization, the organization is at an increased risk for unintentional HIPAA violations. A password manager tool or app could mitigate some of this risk. It generates strong passwords for its users and autofills login credentials on their private computers.
4. HIPAA training. Technology can be used to drive employee education about HIPAA, through videos, online tests or smartphone apps. Organizations be also poll or survey their staff to address training gaps or concerns.
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