This session will review the requirements and current issues pertaining to mobile devices and present ways for the attendees to consider how to communicate between professionals as well as meet patient desires and stay within the regulations, including processes for managing portable devices, policies needed for ensuring secure communications and storage where needed, and procedures for meeting and documenting patient requests. Recent guidance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology on the use of mobile technologies with EHR data will be discussed and practical ways of using mobile devices securely will be presented.
You will be able to understand what the different types of communication are and how they must be considered to meet HIPAA requirements for privacy and security. You will be able to evaluate how your office communications take place and what can be done to ensure that those communications do not take place insecurely whenever patient information is involved. You will have recommendations for policy content that is applicable for mobile devices, as well as relating to patient communications. You will know how to establish the processes that are necessary to ensure security and patient rights, and avoid compliance violations.
Once patient information is involved, the devices used by a provider or their staff must be properly secured through the use of good passcodes and encryption with remote wiping of data if lost or stolen, and if you allow staff to use their own devices for business work, what happens when they trade in their old phone when the new one comes out?
If you communicate with patients using portable devices, you need to consider the issues of privacy and security, as well as those of triaging incoming communications and documenting conversations. Just plain texting is not readily adaptable to the requirements of patient care and documentation, but secure, appropriate solutions are available.
Finally, we will discuss the enforcement of HIPAA rules and how they relate to mobile devices, the issues that can lead to enforcement, and the impacts of enforcement actions, including monetary settlements and corrective action plans.