By Michael Flavin, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, j2 Cloud Services, Inc. eFax Corporate®
Twitter: @eFaxCorporate
“You must protect and secure patients’ PHI no matter what kind of technology you’re using.” – Health.gov.
As an IT professional in the healthcare industry, you know the importance — indeed, the legal necessity — of ensuring that your organization’s patient information remains protected at all times.
That’s why we’ve consolidated 10 best practices for you, from healthcare IT thought leaders, in a new eFax Corporate® infographic — “Solving the BYOD Dilemma in Healthcare: 10 Best Practices for Protecting ePHI on Staff’s Mobile Devices.”
We know that managing your ePHI in an era of widespread mobile-device use can seem daunting. After all, an estimated 81% of physicians use their personal mobile devices to access and transmit ePHI. So how can a healthcare providers and IT management effectively maintain the integrity and confidentiality of its patients’ ePHI?
The troubling news is that often, they cannot. A recent study found that more than 3 in 4 patient records compromised in major data breaches were the result of lost or stolen devices. But the good news is that by taking specific steps and implementing certain best practices, healthcare providers like yours can significantly reduce the chances of compromising ePHI and causing a reportable event under HIPAA.
The infographic offers steps healthcare providers and IT leaders can take to strengthen both the security and the regulatory compliance of your organization’s ePHI in a BYOD world. Suggestions include the type of encryption your organization can implement for sending ePHI via BYOD, as well as the business reasons for upgrading your transmission protocol to the cloud — security and compliance among them.
We also encourage you to read our recent blog entry on this topic: BYOD for Healthcare Businesses — Myths, Facts and Best Practices or view our Webinar on Cyber Hacking in Healthcare & Best Practices for Securing ePHI.
Finally, we will be addressing securing ePHI transmissions on an upcoming December 10th webinar with HITECH Answers and security expert Steve Spearman. On this event we will address a number of key issues including some common misconceptions about security and transmission of PHI, what the HIPAA Standard on encryption and integrity of transmission is, and compliance pitfalls to avoid in 2016. You can learn more here and register for this webinar.
Michael Flavin is the Sr. Product Marketing Manager at j2 Cloud Services, Inc. and is responsible for the go-to-market strategies for the eFax Corporate® suite of solutions. eFax is the world’s leading online fax provider and helps thousands of companies in highly-regulated industries, including healthcare, to transmit and manage sensitive documents efficiently and securely. Contact the eFax Corporate team.