HIPAA News

Healthcare IT Study Finds Mobility and Convenience Key to Productivity

(May 28, 2008)-- Healthcare organizations are strongly considering new data access models for their employees. Specifically, organizations are looking to move away from more conventional, less secure models in favor of those which give employees both the convenience they want and the tools they need to securely access the network and applications at any given time, regardless of their location both within and outside the facility. Specific survey findings include:

85 percent of respondents stated that they are looking to use tablets or mobile devices 41 percent of respondents use roaming desktops Nearly 75 percent of respondents stated that they offer VPN access, and 35 percent offer portal access for remote users Applications and the Impact on Productivity

Healthcare organizations are increasingly reliant on employees' access to and use of applications to do their daily jobs. With patient data a primary security objective, healthcare organizations need to ensure secure access to medical records and other sensitive information, making password management and application security a constant obstacle to employee productivity. Specific survey findings include:

26 percent of respondents log into applications 20-50 times per day, while another 5 percent log in more than 50 times per day On top of that, 73 percent of respondents claimed their organizations were rolling out new applications within the next six months The Reality of Compliance

Increasing compliance requirements are having considerable impact on the people, process and technology in today's healthcare organization, which affects organizational structure, responsibilities and purchases. Specific survey findings include:

People: Nearly 60 percent of healthcare organizations now employ a Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) Process: Close to 40 percent of IT decision-maker respondents stated they spend from 11-40 percent of their time on compliance Technology: 91 percent acknowledge HIPAA regulations influence or strongly influence IT purchasing decisions In addition, there has been an increased scrutiny on prescription drug orders at the state level, with states passing legislation that requires strong authentication at the time of the electronic transaction, which adds more compliance requirements and process to the highly regulated healthcare environment. Specific survey findings include:

44 percent of respondents acknowledge that their organizations face state requirements for electronic prescription drug order authentication and verification today. 33 percent claim their organization's security policies would be easier to support if applications could authenticate credentials either during or just prior to a transaction in addition to at the start. Other Notable Findings

60 percent of respondents are concerned about unauthorized access from temporary or former employees 44 percent of respondents report that their organizations have more than 1000 users of IT systems 60 percent of respondents stated that their healthcare organization operates more than one facility The study was conducted in February and March 2008, culminating in 171 responses from healthcare organization IT decision-makers across the U.S.

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