The Importance of Protecting Data in the Healthcare Industry

Every year, hundreds of healthcare breaches are reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. To protect your business and your client’s data from these threats, you need to constantly adopt the latest technologies.

Our healthcare industry IT services protect medical professionals and patients while improving the delivery of health care services. To fully understand the importance of protecting data in the healthcare industry, we want to share what happens when a data breach occurs.

The Impact to Your Medical Practice

There are a number of consequences for healthcare providers and patients when data is stolen. A single medical record could contain:

• Patient’s full name
• Home address
• Date of birth
• Social Security number
• Driver’s license number
• Insurance / financial account information

In addition to that, extremely private information related to the patient’s physical condition, disabilities, medical ailments, drug or alcohol use, and mental concerns is often present.

When a patient’s information is exposed, like in 2017 when Aetna’s data was breached and the HIV status of 11,000 individuals was released, there can be severe financial and reputation implications. The medical provider is also at risk of being unable to properly help their patients in the event the network is compromised and the system becomes inoperable.

With the right security solutions for your business, however, you won’t have to worry about breached or lost data.

Prioritizing Data Protection in Healthcare

Keep your systems up to date:

Hackers frequently improve their techniques and approaches to stealing data. That’s why it’s important for your business to regularly update your systems and implement new technology as it becomes available. We can manage those technologies and changes for you.

Have protected EHR systems in place:

For example, one of the most important hospital information systems is the Electronic Health Record (EHR), which is where patient information is stored. Protecting patients data ensures doctor/patient confidentiality is kept intact. There are also countless applications used by medical professionals to monitor a facility’s performance in terms of financial efficiency and treatment success rates.

Seek industry specific continuity planning:

Our healthcare expertise allows us to develop a unique business continuity plan that backs up and protects the information you have. This way, you can conduct business properly and your patients will receive the care they deserve without interruption.

If your healthcare practice’s technology needs an update or an overhaul, we can help. Protecting data is at the forefront of the plans we develop for clients. To learn more about the benefits of working with a managed IT services provider, get in touch with us today.

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