Health Care Challenges Memo Essay

There are many challenges that happen within the health care field. The most important is protecting the patient’s personal information and who is able to access this information. The National Health Information Network (NHIN) was formed to help improve upon the sharing of health care data. This was to help link data together for all involved to keep data secure when transferring over the internet. Within a health care organization a Hierarchy information system is used. This offers ease of network expansion and alteration for desktops used to be able to access necessary data. Both local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) are used in within the organization. Two or more LANs are connected by a hub. The LAN is connected from different areas to form an internetwork. Within the health care field it is important that protected health information (PHI) is kept protected. There are measures that need to be taken to ensure that there are no unauthorized usages of this typ e of information. The HIPAA standards must be followed at all times whether it is administrative or patient care departments. Physical safeguards are in place to protect the hardware and facilities that store PHI. The facility that houses the health IT is housed has limited physical access to authorized personal only. There are restrictions on workstations to have access with PHI. The health IT system has safeguards built in to protect health information and to be able to control of access to it. Measures are set to limit access of information. Steps are taken to encrypt, and decrypt information being transmitted electronically to guard against unauthorized access of the information. In order for the organization to have control over who access the information steps need to be taken to protect patient data from being stolen. To do this users have a unique user identification protocols, automatic logoff, emergency access steps, and encryption and decryption mechanisms. Audit  controls need to be used to check activity of the IT system. Authentication of the entity or person that is attempting to access the information is a must to do. Transmission security of PHI that is being transmitted through the network needs to be protected. References Health Information: Management of a Strategic Resource (4th Ed.) (Abdelhak, Grostick, & Hanken) How Do I Ensure Security in Our System? (n.d). Retrieved from www.hrsa.gov/healthit/toolbox/HIVAIDSCAREtoolbox/SecurityAnd†¦