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Our Take on Healthcare Tech Since 1997
Does Your HCIS Downtime Plan Resemble a 5k Race?
One moment all was “normal.” Or the “normal” that nurses and other clinicians, admissions and pharmacy staff experience each day. But then the hospital gets an unexpected surprise. The patient rounds, the dispensing of meds, the patient intake, the normal things that happen every day, shift after shift, suddenly get the equivalent of a splash of cold water to the […]
Continue reading→10 stubborn cybersecurity myths, busted
As common half-truths and misperceptions plague information security, we separate truth from fiction and outline steps to take in order to make your healthcare institution safer.
Continue reading→Myth busted: A wait-and-see approach to cybersecurity is a terrible idea
While the costs tied to protection can be daunting, especially for small organizations, the costs only increase after an attack.
Continue reading→HIPAA Mandate: Maintaining Business Continuity During Downtime
HIPAA’s “Security Guidelines” mandate that all healthcare organizations using healthcare data comply with its data security and business continuity standards, and the penalties and fines for noncompliance are substantial. A contingency plan for disaster recovery and business continuity is a key standard stipulated in the HIPAA Security Rules under the Administrative Safeguards Section, so you clearly need to have such a plan in place.
Continue reading→Costs and Impact of HCIS Downtimes
As mentioned in our previous blog, “The Inevitable HCIS Downtime,” your healthcare information system (HCIS), which houses all your patient information, can be brought down for reasons that are planned (maintenance, upgrades, etc.), but unplanned downtimes can occur at any time due to a number of reasons, including a loss of power, network connectivity, natural disaster, or even a system failure. Network, system and power outages occur annually, and always at a cost and impact to your organization.
Continue reading→The Inevitable HCIS Downtime
What goes up must come down. As healthcare processes have become more and more automated and healthcare organizations transferred to electronic health records to simplify patient data management, a new set of challenges has emerged. Security of electronic patient data is one, mainly due to HIPAA and other governmental regulations. Healthcare information system (HCIS) reliability is another challenge.
Continue reading→WannaCry Ransomware Attack – Heading Off Future Attacks
As you know, the “WannaCry” ransomware attack has impacted hundreds of thousands computers with Microsoft operating systems in more than 150 countries around the globe. Several hospital networks in the UK and other countries were included in the attack. We hope your hospital was not one of them.
Continue reading→TOPIC COLLECTION: Cybersecurity
Recent cyberattacks on healthcare facilities have had significant effects on every aspect of patient care and organizational continuity. They highlight the need for healthcare organizations of all sizes and types to implement cybersecurity best practices and conduct robust planning and exercising for cyber incident response and consequence management. As the number of cyberattacks on this sector increases, healthcare practitioners, facility executives, information technology professionals, and emergency managers must remain current on the ever-changing nature and type of threats to their facilities, systems, patients, and staff. The resources in this Topic Collection can help stakeholders better protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from cyber threats, ensuring patient safety and operational continuity.
Continue reading→The Application Developer’s Conundrum: Advancing the Technology While Maintaining Backward Compatibility
As software developers, we’re always working on enhancing our technology. We aim to progress our solutions’ functionality to the leading edge rather than just keeping it up-to-date with the current trends. Applications are typically developed based on the latest operating systems and servers (currently Windows 2016), however the OS that our customers have installed and use can be older, such […]
Continue reading→The Rise of Medical Identity Theft
When thieves take your personal data to get prescription drugs, doctor care, or surgery, it can endanger your health and trash your finances
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