Introduction
The goal of an operational security management policy is to set clear guidelines on how the information assets of an organization should be operated. The policy should define the roles and responsibility that every individual of the organization plays in ensuring the policy is followed, and the ramifications for when it is not. The healthcare industry may have contextual characteristics that are not found in other types of industries. The information assets must be operated in such a way that reduces the liability of the organization in the event of a data breach. A communication plan, and its elements can drive the creation of the policy, ensuring all levels of the organization are aware of the policy.
Operational Management Security
…show more content…
Each operational department has its own set of priorities that should align with the overall business objectives of the organization. Therefore, their inclusion in the policy can help ensure that some policy decisions are not so restrictive that they hinder the actual operations of the business.
The IT function plays a crucial role in the operational management security policy as that function will be the closest to the technology, and controls that are implemented as a result of the policy. The goal of the policy is to develop clear guidelines on what is and is not allowed, escalation paths for authorization activities, as well as serve as a deterrent for misconfigurations that could be a company at risk ("CISCO," n.d.).
Since the policy also details ramifications for noncompliance, especially those that may have resulted in a data breach, the human resources, finance, and internal audit functions should be involved. HR would have to deal with disciplinary actions, finance would be responsibility over financial loss, and audit would assess and test the policy periodically to ensure it is operating as intended. Government, and regulatory agencies could influence policy decisions as laws governing healthcare change.
Communication Plan
…show more content…
Timing and frequency of the messages is important to consider to ensure the plan meets its goals. If there is too little communication, the message may get lost; however, if the communication is too frequent, it may be ignored (Boudreau, 2012).
Since the plan aims to support the creation of the policy, the frequency of the messages should be a careful balance of informative, and necessary, without coming across as a sales pitch. All levels of an organization should want to operate its assets securely, especially within the healthcare industry, as many practitioners, such as doctors, take an oath, and a level of accountability. An operational management security plan helps the industry meet the requirements set forth by the healthcare
In this case, a large health services organization (HSO) in Florida, that has a world-renowned AIDS treatment center had information breach of 4,000 HIV+ patient records, and the list was sent to newspapers, magazines, and the internet. Consequently, this issue was featured in every media vehicle in the world and as CEO, you are requested by the board of trustees to come up a better management information system (MIS) to resolve all information security issues or you will face termination. After hiring an undercover computer security consultant to help determine where the security leak came from, she quickly identifies numerous breaches in computer security and provides a report with the issues identified. The report furnished by the consultant revealed that facility had major problems with the MIS and the staff. In order to determine how to address the issues, the CEO must first answer the following questions: what law is being violated by the employees, why was this law enacted, what are the penalties for such violations, what are the penalties for sharing celebrity information, and should he be updating his resume and looking for another job (Buchbinder, 378).
Introduction The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, is a law designed “to improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery, to promote the use of medical savings accounts, to improve access to long-term care services and coverage, to simplify the administration of health insurance, and for other purposes. ”1 HIPAA mandates that covered entities must employ technological means to ensure the privacy of sensitive information. This white paper intends to study the requirements put forth by HIPAA by examining what is technically necessary for them to be implemented, the technological feasibility of this, and what commercial, off-the-shelf systems are currently available to implement these requirements. HIPAA Overview On July 21, 1996, Bill Clinton signed HIPAA into law.
The Security Rule of the HIPAA law affects technology the most in a Healthcare or Human Service organization. The Security Rule deals specifically with Electronic Protected Health Information (EPHI). The EPHI has three types of security safeguards that are mandatory to meet compliance with HIPAA regulations. Administrative, physical, and technical. There is constant concern of different kinds of devices and tools because of their vulnerability: laptops; personal computers of the home; library and public workstations; USB Flash Drives and email, to name a few. These items are easily accessible for those attempting to breach security. Workers of the healthcare area have complet...
The internal control breach that involved Massachusetts General Hospital missing records did turn up the regulatory and enforcement heat in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The requirements of HIPPA provide clear guidelines that require all health care providers, in the United States, to give insightful protection of the private patient information. This protection should be done through physical, administrative and technical internal safeguards. The department of health and human resource service in the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced a massive penalty on Massachusetts General Hospital as a measure to enhance their security and privacy regulations (Paxson).
Health care managers could create a project team to review these policies and create reports on what polices they have for medical errors and what polices would need to be created and approved to prevent medical errors. To determine the polices that would need to be created could come from research from within the facility on the types of medical errors that has occurred within their facility. Policies could be created based on research on the types of preventable medical errors that has happened at other facilities to prevent them from happening at their
HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) was put in place by the Federal Government for several reasons; better portability of health insurance for employees, to prevent fraud and abuse within the healthcare delivery system, and simplification of administrative functions associated with healthcare delivery (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). Due to sensitive healthcare information being shared federal regulations were also put into place, resulting in the “Privacy Rule” and “Security Rule”. The Privacy Rule limits the use and disclosure of patient information. The Security Rule protects the patients’ healthcare information from improper use or disclosure, to maintain information integrity, and ensure its availability (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). Both regulations apply to protected health information (PHI) which is any form of health information that can be used to identify an individual patient. Practitioners who refer to HIPPA are not referring to the act itself but the “Privacy Rule” and “Security Rule” (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). It is extremely important to understand these concepts as a student in the clinical setting and how each hospital enforces these concepts. Before starting at any clinical site there is an extensive orientation about HIPPA regarding what is appropriate and not appropriate when it comes to patient information and the repercussions of violating HIPPA. In this paper I will discuss Akron General’s rules and policies regarding their EHR, PHI, EPHI, and social media.
Healthcare administrators are expected to create policies. These policies will affect the well-being of patients and employees. Aroskar (1998 December 31) explains when developing policies, the least advantaged need to be the benchmark. Consideration of the indirect and direct consequences of the policies must take into account the least advantaged. An example of this would be if the organization had a policy,
The United States’ healthcare system is a three-trillion-dollar industry consisting of doctors, nurses, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment providers, and health insurers. With so many components and millions of patients to care for, fast efficient health information systems are needed to reduce cost, store and modify patient information, and administer quality care (Akowuah, Yuan, Xu, Wang, 2012, pg. 40). Although health information systems have helped increase the healthcare industry’s efficiency and effectiveness, it has also exposed millions of patient’s identities and medical records to cyber-attacks. Managers in the healthcare field should be aware of cyberattacks, the laws that protect and secure patient’s privacy,
Security helps the organization meet its business objectives or mission by protecting its physical and financial resources, reputation, legal position, employees, and other tangible and intangible assets through the selection and application of appropriate safeguards. Businesses should establish roles and responsibilities of all personnel and staff members. However, a Chief Information Officer should be appointed to direct an organization’s day to day management of information assets. Supporting roles are performed by the service providers and include systems operations, whose personnel design and operate the computer systems. Each team member must be held accountable in ensuring all of the rules and policies are being followed, as well as, understanding their roles, responsibilities and functions. Organizations information processing systems are vulnerable to many threats that can inflict various types of damage that can result in significant losses (Harris, 2014). Losses can come from actions from trusted employees that defraud the system, outside hackers, or from careless data entry. The major threat to information protection is error and omissions that data entry personnel, users, system operators and programmers make. To better protect business information resources, organizations should conduct a risk analysis to see what
Halley Berry stars in the film Losing Isaiah, as Khaila depicting a drug addicted black mother who, under the influence of cocaine, lives in a crack house, and abandons her infant son in an alley filled with trash. Waking the next day, realizing what she has done to the child, Khaila heads to the area where she discarded the three-day-old kid only to realize the child is no longer there; for years she presumes the child is dead. However, the child's discovered by an unsuspecting sanitation worker, who takes him to the hospital, where an unsuspecting white female social worker Margaret is employed, played by Jessica Lange bonds with the African American child Isaiah played by Mark John Jeffries. Margaret cares for his physical and emotional
Health information opponents has question the delivery and handling of patients electronic health records by health care organization and workers. The laws and regulations that set the framework protecting a user’s health information has become a major factor in how information is used and disclosed. The ability to share a patient document using Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is a critical component in the United States effort to show transparency and quality of healthcare records while protecting patient privacy. In 1996, under President Clinton administration, the US “Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)” established national standards for the safeguard of certain health information. As a result, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 or (HIPAA) was established. HIPAA security standards required healthcare providers to ensure confidentiality and integrity of individual health information. This also included insurance administration and insurance portability. According to Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), an organization must guarantee the integrity, confidentiality, and security of sensitive patient data (Heckle & Lutters, 2011).
ISO 27001: Information Security Management System: This standard helps organizations implement security as a system versus numerous controls put in place to solve seemingly isolated issues. The standard includes handling of electronic information as well as paper-based information. From the management perspective, this standard, main contribution is to formalize the concept of risk assessments and organize information security as a quality improvement activity. The standard includes the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) concept as well as the principle of continually assessing the organization, not just episodically (Murphy, 2015).
Health care policy targets the organization, financing, and delivery of health care services. The reason for targeting these areas is for the licensing of health care professionals and facilities, to make sure there is protection of patients’ private health information, and there are measures of quality care, mistakes, malpractice, and efforts to control of health care cost (Acuff, 2010). There are several stages that one must take when creating a policy (see figure 1). The figure below shows the critical steps in the policy process. First, the problem must be identified, once the problem is identified potential policy solutions must be formulated, then the policy is adopted, and then implemented. After the policy is in place, an evaluation of the policy has to take place (This Nation, 2013).
Having a background in Information Technology and network security, I find the concept of contingency plans to be very intriguing. In the health care field, data is especially sensitive as it contains all personal patient information. Being that this sensitive data is widespread throughout the health care system; contingency plans prove to be an ideal asset to the field. They provide the security which is undoubtedly needed in order to maintain the integrity of the data. Additionally they aid in sustaining patient satisfaction, as well as overall quality of care.
Network management planning and security planning involves identifying the best and most appropriate systems and hardware that the firm can use to better manage network and plan security systems. Therefore, the management required me to examine the best software and hardware systems in the market place that the company can adopt to enable it to manage the network and security. The management required me to advice on the implementation procedure of various plans that are going to be adopted. My responsibility also involved finding out or predicting the impact of the plan on the future operations. They required me to evaluate the challenges the company might face while adopting the changes in the network management plan and security plans.