September has always been synonymous with students returning to the classroom. While that may not be reason enough to review the HIPAA Privacy Rule, a more compelling reason to dust off the HIPAA education materials might be the government's increase in enforcement efforts.
The time for healthcare organizations to undertake a review of their operations is now-OCR anticipates that its long-awaited HIPAA compliance audit program will be under way this fall.
HITECH was the trigger for a global HIPAA policy review at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System (North Shore-LIJ) in Great Neck, NY. This was no easy task; North Shore-LIJ includes a medical school, a research institute, 15 hospitals, more than 200 ambulatory care centers, over 5,600 beds, and a total workforce of more than 42,000 employees.
Social networking and its related communication vehicles pose significant privacy and security challenges for healthcare organizations, says Chris Apgar, CISSP.
Just three weeks before a devastating tornado roared through Joplin, MO, St. John's Regional Medical Center transitioned to an electronic health record (EHR) system that it credits with aiding its disaster recovery.
