Strategies for Securing Data
The skills required to conduct assessments and make recommendations that lead to improved outcomes are fundamental to your role as a nurse. Can the same be said for your role as a database designer, manager, or end-user?
In a word, yes. Regardless of your level of interaction with a database system, your assessments and recommendations can lead to design enhancements that improve functionality, improve the quality or integrity of data, and strengthen data security.
In this Assignment, you consider elements that might be appropriate for a database system assessment. You also recommend strategies for approaching data and network security.
Review this scenario:
Your organization, the Grand City Medical Center, has secured a deal to merge with a smaller hospital, City Memorial, located in a neighboring town. Your informatics team is tasked with analyzing the EMR system that City Memorial has in place and reviewing the data security, policies for ensuring that the data is secure, and the facility’s network security. You will compile your findings in a report presented to the chief information officer next week.
To prepare:
Review the Learning Resources.
Review the scenario.
Search for two articles in the Walden Library related to best practices for data security and network security.
Assignment (3- to 5-page paper):
Based on the scenario above, identify the items that you would include in your assessment and explain why.
Describe the policies that you would expect to find.
Explain the network security challenges faced when facilities and database systems are merged.
Recommend two strategies for securing data and the network. Be specific and provide examples.
Analyze the relationship between best practices for securing data and healthcare institutions. Be specific and provide examples.
Support your work with references from this week’s Learning Resources and your articles found in the Walden Library.
Strategies for Securing Data
Contemporary healthcare organizations are increasingly using health information systems. The nurse informaticist plays a key role in ensuring that such systems function properly. Health information technologists, including nurse informaticists, interact with the database system severally as they perform their role. They assess database systems and make recommendations that guide the management to enhance database design, improve system functionality, and strengthen data quality, integrity, and security (Harrington, 2016). The Grand City Medical Center has secured a deal to merge with a smaller hospital, City Memorial, located in a neighboring town. The informatics team is tasked with analyzing the EMR system that City Memorial has in place and reviewing the data security, policies for ensuring that the data is secure, and the facility’s network security. This assignment will describe the elements that might be appropriate for a database system assessment and recommend strategies for approaching data and network security.
Items to Include in the Assessment
A hospital should have strategies in place to ensure data and network security. The specific items to include in the assessment of the electronic medical records (EMR) system that City Memorial has in place include; whether the organization has put in place measures to prevent unauthorized access, modification, and sharing of the data that is stored in the EMR and whether the facility has clearly defined policies explaining how it is protecting its network from cyberattacks (Ofori-Duodu, 2019). The reason for including these items in the assessment is that they are the strategies that organizations that are implementing health information technology commonly use to secure their networks and electronic data (Compton, 2020). As Ofori-Duodu (2019) explains, data breaches are a big threat to data security and the lack of network security measures exposes an organization’s network to cyberattack. In this respect, it is important to assess data and network security measures used by a facility when determining the level of security of its database systems.
Policies to Expect
The two policies to expect in the assessment are the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). The HIPAA directs hospitals to maximize privacy and ensure the protection of protected health information (PHI) on their databases and health information systems. FISMA requires organizations to integrate programs that ensure data security in their databases and information systems (Compton, 2020). When assessing the EMR system that City Memorial has in place, the nurse informaticist should evaluate whether the rules set by the organization are in compliance with the HIPAA and FISMA requirements. Any violation of these laws should be addressed before the merger agreement is completed.
Network Security Challenges
Network security challenges might occur when facilities and database systems are merged. Although merging with another organization can help a facility to expand quickly, it can put a company’s information systems at risk. One of the commonly experienced network security challenges in merges is a complex network architecture that is characterized by different network controls and conflicting applications. An attempt to merge these networks might create loopholes that cyber attackers might use to access an organization’s database and information systems (Ofori-Duodu, 2019). The other challenge concerns protecting sensitive data as it is transferred from one organization to another. Some unscrupulous individuals might delete or even share sensitive information from the databases of the merging organizations (Ofori-Duodu, 2019). This explains why it is important to back up data before a merger.
Strategies for Securing Data and the Network
A number of strategies, when properly implemented, can help healthcare organizations to secure their data and network. The first strategy for securing data and network that the organizations can consider in their merger is enforcing an organizational security policy. For example, the organization can employ the use of passwords on computers. This strategy will ensure data security by preventing unauthorized data access (Ofori-Duodu et al., 2019). The best strategy to ensure network security is to use multiple security infrastructures to limit data breaches at the network’s endpoint (Ofori-Duodu et al., 2019; Compton, 2020). Examples of measures that can help the organization to achieve this include the use of antivirus software, antispyware, firewall, and pop-up blockers.
The Relationship Between Best Practices for Securing Data and Healthcare Institutions
Healthcare institutions, like other organizations, need to utilize best practices to secure patients’ data. The EMR system contains sensitive data that should always be protected from unauthorized access, modification, and sharing (Mulissa et al., 2020). From a study conducted by Ofori-Duodu et al., (2019), some of the best practices that healthcare institutions can use to secure data include the use of technical security controls, organizational security policy supported by staff training, access management techniques, and security frameworks. These best practices must demonstrate adherence to relevant laws and regulations.
Conclusion
The nurse informaticist plays a key role in influencing decision-making regarding database design, system functionality improvement, as well as data quality, integrity, and security strengthening. When conducting a database system assessment, the nurse informaticist should evaluate whether there are appropriate measures to ensure data and network security. Numerous network security challenges are normally faced when facilities and database systems are merged. Two strategies for securing data and the network include having a strong organizational security policy that also entails employee training and the use of antivirus software to limit data breaches at the networks’ endpoints. Generally, healthcare organizations should implement best practices that enhance data and network security.
References
Compton, Y. (2020). Obstacles with data security: Strategies from Carolina Universities. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/9088/
Harrington, J. (2016). Relational database design and implementation (4th ed.). Cambridge, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Mulissa, Z., Wendrad, N., Bitewulign, B., Biadgo, A., Abate, M., Alemu, H., Abate, B., Kiflie, A., Magge, H., Parry, G., & Kabir, R. (2020). Effect of data quality improvement intervention on health management information system data accuracy: An interrupted time series analysis. PLoS One, 15(8), e0237703. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237703
Ofori-Duodu, M. (2019). Exploring data security management strategies for preventing data breaches. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7947/