‘Most Wired' Hospitals Place Priority On Privacy, Security Of Patient Data
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Health data security and patient engagement top the “do-to” list for hospitals.
Health data security and patient engagement are top priorities for the nation’s hospitals, according to results of the 2015 Most Wired survey and bench marking study. The study was conducted by CHIME and sponsored by VMware.
The 17th annual HealthCare’s Most Wired survey, released by the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum, polled more than 741 participants from more than 2,213 hospitals to determine how healthcare organizations are leveraging IT to improve value-based healthcare performance in terms of infrastructure, business and administrative management, quality and safety, and clinical integration.
The study found hospitals are taking increasingly aggressive privacy and security measures to protect and safeguard patient data, and the results revealed that in terms of security, hospitals are placing emphasis on privacy audit systems, provisioning systems, data loss prevention, single sign-on, and identity management. In addition, 96 percent of Most Wired organizations use intrusion detection systems compared to 85 percent of the all respondents, while they also commonly used privacy audit systems (94 percent) and security incident event management (93 percent).
And almost eight in 10 of Most Wired organizations (79 percent) conduct incident response exercises or tabletop tests annually, compared to 37 percent of all responding hospitals. Further, for 83 percent of Most Wired organizations cybersecurity risk is an essential part of hospital board oversight of risk management and reduction.
“With the rising number of patient data breaches and cybersecurity attacks threatening the healthcare industry, protecting patient health information is a top priority for hospital customers,” said Frank Nydam, Senior Director of Healthcare at VMware.
“Coupled with the incredible technology innovation taking place today, healthcare organizations need to have security as a foundational component of their mobility, cloud and networking strategy and incorporated into the very fabric of the organization”
One aspect of strengthening the alignment between physician and hospital in the transition to value-based care is the physician/patient portal. The survey found that in 84 percent of Most Wired organizations, physicians can view and exchange other facilities’ results in the portal compared with 63 percent of hospitals surveyed, while 76 percent used the portal and EHRs to exchange results and 81 percent can communicate with patients via email or alerts. These figures were all substantially higher than those among all respondents.
Further, the Most Wired hospitals are also leverage patient portals to engage patients in their own health and healthcare. The study found that 89 percent of Most Wired organizations offer access to the patient portal through a mobile application; 67 percent of Most Wired hospitals offer the ability to incorporate patient-generated data; 63 percent offer self-management tools for chronic conditions; and 60 percent offer patient-specific education in multiple languages.
Detailed results of the survey and study can be found in the July issue of H&HN. For a full list of winners visit www.hhnmag.com.