HCB News: What part does technology play?

DW: In today’s health care environment, it’s vital to ensure the rules and regulations are followed, as well as securing workflow and efficiency. Technology should enhance compliance efforts, not be an added burden. Before making any sweeping changes, an inventory of all assets related to health data has been done. That’s more than smart management – it’s important to understand the office workflow, including office equipment such as scanners, printers, fax machines, and copiers.

Health care IT professionals need to start with identifying both the breach potential inherent in those pieces of equipment (along with their related software tools) and the steps taken to minimize the likelihood of data loss. Reviewing existing policies and procedures along with the current devices in place will help clarify the steps needed to secure the office environment and ensure regulatory compliance.



HCB News: Once the health care environment has been assessed, what specific applications would you suggest?

DW: Working with knowledgeable solution providers, health care IT pros can acquire and integrate the hardware, software and workflow procedures necessary to help protect data and comply with governmental mandates. Consider:

• Locking individual machine functions by user. These include Print, Copy, Scan, Fax Send, Fax Receive and PC Fax - and integrating a NFC-enabled device, a swipe card or an individual key code for job release.
• Ensuring that print jobs are password protected using a personal PIN that is input via the machine’s control panel.
• Scanning sensitive or confidential documents to a secure FTP site and securing the data as soon as it is scanned.
• Ensuring all faxes are received into memory and cannot be printed without a password.
• Preventing unauthorized users from sending faxes, and enabling secure faxing and fax forwarding to help maintain patient confidentiality.
• Face-down printing and faxing, preventing unauthorized document viewing.
• Bypassing hard-copy printouts by using PC-to-fax or “e-fax” function.
• Relaying faxes to clinicians on the go with fax forwarding; improving efficiency and reducing potential data breaches related to fax printouts.
• Integrating scanning within EHR systems.

HCB News: What advances are helping health care organizations to use office technology in a more compliant fashion?

DW: The key principle is minimizing exposure of protected health information to anyone but the personnel who have a “need to know.” Going back to the previous example of patient records being printed and forgotten, password protected printing can also help eliminate that problem. Once a print job has been initiated, the documents won’t be printed until the user enters a password on the printer. Also that functionality can scan sensitive or confidential documents directly to a secure FTP site to maintain confidentiality.

Some solutions are as simple as designing equipment that support face-down printing and faxing, which helps prevent inadvertent viewing of a document. The end result is a more efficient use of printers, scanners, and copiers, with reduced risk created by non-compliance.
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