In a fast-paced society that relies heavily on digital technology, it would seem unusual for any business not to engage with both current and potential clients via new mediums.
Customer engagement is not only restricted to your favorite retailer or restaurant. Many healthcare providers have taken up the practice of patient engagement, and more plan on following the trend.
Although it has been a long time coming, results of HIPAA audits conducted in 2016 and 2017 were finally released to the public in December of 2020.
In 2016 and 2017, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) performed audits of 166 covered entities and 41 business associates to check on compliance with selected provisions of the HIPAA Rules.
In the report, the Department of Health & Human Services outlines some of its findings, both good and bad, related to policy. This snapshot will look at some of the key findings from the report. Whether positive or negative, neither section is a reflection on all organizations audited.
According to the NY Times, many public and private healthcare organizations are overwhelmed by faxes and paper workflows for Covid-19 testing and tracking and are looking for digital solutions to rapidly scale to meet the exponential growth in demand for their services.
Over the past decade, the impact of cloud computing on healthcare has made transitioning to it necessary for healthcare providers. In this technological era, things have become fast-paced, and an on-premises healthcare system will undoubtedly cause the industry to lag. According to the 2019 HIMSS Analytics Cloud Survey, 8 out of 10 healthcare stakeholders consider cloud a strategic priority for the coming year and beyond. Its uses range from data backups and recovery to business functions such as organizational finance and human resources.
However, there can be problems with cloud computing, preventing it from being foolproof. Like many modern technologies, certain drawbacks should be considered before implementation. Once you are aware of these scenarios, share them with your IT leaders, to ensure you are best prepared for any situation when it comes time to switch from old physical equipment to a new healthcare cloud architecture.
Statistics compiled by Techjury reveal that in the last decade, there have been over 2,550 data breaches in the U.S. healthcare industry, with millions of records being affected. If this is not enough to heighten the level of concern of several healthcare companies, the next statistic will. By the end of 2020, security breaches are expected to cost the healthcare industry 6 trillion dollars. This is a significant increase from the $3 trillion figure projected in 2017.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals have been our most essential resource in terms of battling the pandemic and caring for patients. Walk-in clinics and other healthcare facilities that are not hospitals have had to shut their doors, opting to care for patients through telehealth systems instead. Though we will not know the extent of mass telehealth use and adoption until after economies fully re-open, and the virus is behind us, we can draw safe conclusions to the fact that they have been well widely-used by patients thus far.
At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, many healthcare providers were sent "scrambling" to transition their clinics from in-person to telehealth operations. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) moved quickly to ease regulations for healthcare providers, ridding them of some of the stress associated with meeting certain HIPAA compliance criteria.
One of HIPAA's most crucial administrative safeguards is the implementation of "policies and procedures to prevent, detect, contain, and correct security violations." This particular safeguard requires a great focus on risk analysis and management, reducing risk, as well as implementing the necessary measures to keep vulnerabilities at a reasonable level.
Though aimed at being a convenient alternative, telehealth practices must do their best to replicate in-person visits. With that being said, all data being shared between patient and provider is done virtually, meaning that extra precautions should be taken to protect sensitive personal health information (PHI).
Healthcare's shift into a digitized industry with telehealth is also becoming a shift into a better customer experience. Historically, patients may receive accurate and excellent healthcare, but at the expense of a high quality customer experience.
However, with the increasingly competitive telehealth market that can now reach further than just the vicinity of a local clinic, doctors must start heavily factoring in customer experience with their telehealth services. There are multiple ways to achieve this, from employing UX/UI designers who enhance hospital and clinic sites or apps to even rebrand your organization's infrastructure in a customer-centric method.
