Enhancing Patient Privacy Through People, Processes, and Technology

As healthcare organizations increasingly rely on data from EHR, HR, and other systems, the need for robust patient privacy measures becomes paramount. Unauthorized access to patient information can lead to devastating consequences, breaches of confidentiality, reputational damages, and significant regulatory fines. To address this pressing issue, a comprehensive approach that combines people, processes, and technology is essential to keeping PHI out of the hands of malicious actors. By leveraging these three pillars effectively, healthcare organizations can enhance patient privacy safeguards and stay compliant with regulatory agencies such as OCR.

Insider unauthorized access was the most significant cause of breaches, reaching 93 percent. - Recent HHS Breach Data

The Power of People in Privacy Protection

Creating a culture that values patient privacy requires ongoing training and awareness programs for all employees. Regular training sessions that cover the latest privacy regulations and the organization's policies equip staff members with the knowledge they need to handle sensitive PHI responsibly. By implementing regular training, organizations take a proactive approach to empower their employees to take ownership of the trust patients put in them, reduce repeat offenders, and meet regulatory.

Building Strong Collaborative Relationships

To embody an environment where patient privacy is prioritized throughout an organization, collaborative relationships between compliance professionals and executives are crucial. This includes partnering with IT, HR, and legal departments to develop a comprehensive patient privacy program.

By fostering open communication and collaboration with these departments from the outset, compliance professionals can ensure a cohesive approach when addressing privacy and policy violations.

 It’s one thing to detect a breach. It’s another to collaborate across the organization in order to resolve that and operationalize your policies with all the different constituents in order to maintain patient privacy holistically.” - Nick Culbertson, CEO, Protenus

Understanding the necessary steps to take to detect and prevent insider threats is paramount to minimizing the potential impact on the organization, workforce, and patient privacy.

The Role of Technology in Privacy Monitoring

Technology plays an important role in detecting unauthorized access to patient records whether intentional or not. During a recent healthsystemCIO webinar entitled “Developing Optimal Policies & Relationships to Deal with Insider Privacy Breaches”, St. Joseph Health Director of Technology Infrastructure & Cyber Security, Information Security Officer Jesse Fasolo shared, “People are looking at data they’re not supposed to. They’re obtaining or exfiltrating data, and it could be any internal employee.” Organizations that conduct manual audits of disparate systems find it to be time-consuming and often ineffective due to the sheer volume of data involved. Compliance professionals who take this manual approach end up only monitoring a fraction of system accesses. Of the fraction monitored, high false positives consume their limited time creating less focus on high-priority incidents. This is where AI-driven solutions like patient privacy monitoring software come into play.

By utilizing AI, compliance professionals can audit 100% of system access without the heavy lifting. healthsystemCIO webinar panelist Nick Culbertson, Protenus CEO stated,

It’s one thing to detect a breach. It’s another to collaborate across the organization in order to resolve that and operationalize your policies with all the different constituents in order to maintain patient privacy holistically.” - Nick Culbertson, CEO, Protenus

He continued, “Every access to every record, every day. And so, you get the balance of both worlds where you can automate the heavy lifting of monitoring, while also focusing on higher-risk incidents.” By automating the monitoring process of patient privacy, healthcare providers can achieve a balance between efficiency and accuracy.

Over 7 million patient records were compromised in 2023 - HIPAA Journal

A Holistic Approach to Patient Privacy

Enhancing patient privacy requires a holistic approach that combines technology, well-defined processes, and an educated workforce. Leveraging advanced solutions like Protenus' Patient Privacy Monitoring software enables healthcare organizations to automate monitoring while focusing on higher-risk incidents. Simultaneously, personalized education reinforces compliance among individuals, fostering a culture of accountability.

Listen to what compliance experts have to say about developing optimal policies & relationships to deal with insider privacy breaches

By establishing strong collaborative relationships across departments and prioritizing ongoing training initiatives, healthcare organizations can fortify their defenses against insider threats to patient privacy. Through this concerted effort encompassing people, processes, and technology, healthcare providers can preserve patient trust, safeguard PHI from insider threats, and stay compliant with regulatory agencies.