How Healthcare Organizations May Protect Patient Health Information (PHI)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates healthcare organizations alongside business associates to institute safeguards that ensure confidentiality and integrity alongside the availability of patient health information (PHI). These safeguards may come in four different approaches, including security mechanisms, administrative and personnel issues, accessibility levels, alongside the handling and disposal of confidential information.

Security mechanism: There are multiple security mechanisms that healthcare organizations may introduce to ensure that PHI does not fall into the wrong hands. Some of the security mechanisms that can be implemented include the use of:

Firewalls prevent unauthorized individuals from gaining access to the facility’s network and data.

Spam filters that block malicious emails and malware.

An antivirus solution to block as well as to detect the presence of malware in the system.

The use of data encryption on all portable devices.

A HIPAA-compliant messaging platform that encrypts all communications between providers and clinicians (Alder, 2017).

Administrative and personal issues: Some of the typical administrative alongside personnel issues that can be undertaken to safeguard PHI include:

Creating security awareness and anti-phishing training for the staff.

Implementation of administrative actions policies, and procedures to manage the selection, development, and implementation, alongside the maintenance of security measures that protect the electronic health records of patients.

Enacting incident response plans.

Implementing business associate agreements and background checks (Alder, 2017).

Level of Accessibility: To control the level of accessibility of information, the following ought to take place:

Ensuring that PHI is disseminated with practices and organizations that are HIPAA-compliant to promote the coordination, provision, and management of healthcare-related services such as billing and payment.

The implementation of an intrusion detection system that monitors for any changes in the files as well as network activity.

The storage of charts in secure locations, thereby ensuring that they are accessed by authorized individuals (Kruse & Smith, 2017).

Handling and Disposal of Confidential Information:  The following strategies are proposed by HIPAA for the handling and disposal of confidential patient health information. Storing confidential patient health information in a secure place away from unauthorized individuals.

For PHI paper charts, HIPAA stipulates that they ought to be disposed of through burning, pulping, shredding, or pulverizing so that they remain unreadable or undecipherable and may not be reconstructed.

Storing confidential patient health information in a secure place away from unauthorized individuals (Kruse & Smith, 2017).

Educational Methods to Train the Staff

E-learning: One of the most effective approaches to training that can be used to educate the staff on phishing and spam emails is e-learning. This refers to the presentation of learning content by information technology, such as computers as well as handheld devices. In my case, the most ideal approach that will be utilized is PowerPoint. For the PowerPoint presentation, I will utilize elements that engage the user with interactive simulations, activities, and questions. Nonetheless, I would avoid the use of exaggerated transitions, imagery, and themes that can potentially cause cognitive overload on the side of the staff and, as such, significantly impact their learning experience (Hebda et al., 2019, p.225).

Self-Guided Learning: The other educational approach that I would utilize in delivering education to the staff concerning spam emails and phishing is the self-guided learning approach. A self-guided learning approach is a training-delivery approach that uses text-based training manuals and materials that the end-user may follow to learn about the topic. Subsequently, some of the materials I would use in the self-guided approach include the use of posters, manuals, protocols, and guidelines that will be distributed to each of the staff.  One drawback that is expected from the use of this approach includes the inability to monitor compliance with training alongside the lack of instructional interaction with end-users (Hebda et al., 2019,p.223).

Just-in-time training: In this model, I will be physically present with the staff to walk them through some of the daily processes, such as when feeding the electronic health records. In this approach