Healthcare Management

 

Enablement of the electronic records represents a major change for an industry that has been heavily dependent on paper based medical records for decades. The shift in data capture aims to increase efficiency in the delivery of health care services in several ways while reducing medical billing errors and instances of insurance fraud.

As you are aware, in addition to Electronic Records Management and Meaningful Use Admissions, your practice is responsible for documenting compliance with vital IT security functions to help protect personal indefinable information of patient records. In addition, practices must document and demonstrate on-going compliance of Medical regulatory processes and procedures.

Professional associations strongly recommending a thorough review of your practice's HIPPA's and Meaningful Use compliance process and procedures. Reputable IT partners will provide a no-cost, on site consultation to review your Information technology processes and procedures and help you understand and maintain ongoing regulatory compliance.

Your provider should have expertise in:

    Network Security
    Desktop Security
    Secured communication through email, and IM
    Disaster Recovery, Network redundancy and Collocation services
    Data storage security
    Hosted PBX / VoIP Systems

As part of their review, they should provide you with a comprehensive outline of the areas that require additional attention and note those areas where your compliance requirements have already been met.

Health providers have historically been restrained with administrative investments in IT infrastructure and personnel. This has produced a status quo of making due with limited technology resources. A reliance on outdated, disparate and fragmented computer systems further hampers an ability to easily store, access, and use patient data in the most productive ways.

Fortunately, services-based technology is taking the place of heavy investments once ubiquitous with administrative IT operations in most all clinical settings. These costs are knowable and can be budgeted for far less than managing in-house equipment and skilled professionals would cost. Further, regulatory compliance has become a part of the technology providers' core competencies, helping them become a partner to help manage this crucial aspect of clinical operations.

Maintaining security, regulatory compliance and managing administrative costs can best be managed through a partnership with a reliable service partner. Clinicians should be focused more on the quality of care they provide without being hampered by unknown technical issues and compliance gaps that, if left unchecked, can invite larger problems in the future.

Consider selecting a reputable provider already working with a professional association as a trusted partner. This relationship demonstrates a level of performance for the IT partner and their commitment to meeting the demands of the specialty clinical environment.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9171452

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