Updated May 20, 2019 A little oversight can lead to a lot of trouble. Employees who aren’t prepared to securely handle patients’ protected health information (PHI) can accidentally cause breaches and leak tens to millions of private records. Why does this...
In 2012-2013, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center had three data breaches involving unencrypted devices. An unencrypted laptop had been stolen from an employee’s home, and they had lost two unencrypted USB thumb drives. These incidents compromised the...
Every day, you share patients’ protected health information (PHI) to carry out tasks at work. However, is it okay to share PHI without the patient’s permission? In many cases, yes. HIPAA allows you to share PHI both internally and with business associates if it helps...
In a recent Kentucky court case, a hospital fired a nurse for an alleged HIPAA privacy violation. The nurse had been helping a technician and physician prepare for a medical procedure, telling them to wear gloves because the patient had Hepatitis C. After the...
The Joint Commission (TJC) has concluded that it is not acceptable to use secure text messaging for patient care orders. Industry experts weighed in on the pros and cons of implementing secure text orders, and the impact on patient safety remained unclear. Therefore,...