Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

ANALYSIS OF A PERTINENT HEALTHCARE ISSUE

ANALYSIS OF A PERTINENT HEALTHCARE ISSUE

Walden University; NURS-6053A

Introduction

In today’s world, one of the national healthcare issue or stressors that has had a great impact in our working setting is cybersecurity. Cybersecurity incidences in the healthcare industry and mainly in hospitals have been a growing threat. The data breaches have led not only to data losses and financial resource theft but also healthcare devices attack as well as infrastructure. According to Claunch & McMillan (2013), a data breach on a health care industry has an estimated impact of about US$6 billion. The author further notes that the health care industry has lagged behind compared to other industries in ensuring data security. Therefore, it is essential for health care organizations to invest enough capital and effort in securing its systems (Kruse, Frederick, Jacobson & Monticone, 2017). Healthcare organizations are a target to cyber-attacks since they collect as well as store large amount of patient information. This personal information is valuable data that can be utilized in conducting identity theft.

The common threats that can be experienced in a health care organization include malware and ransomware, cloud threats, misleading websites, and employee errors. As health care organizations work hard to implement technology geared towards bettering patient care, healthcare cyber-attacks continues to advance (Jalali & Kaiser2018).

Impact of cybersecurity on our health care work setting

Although other essential sectors experience cyber-attacks, the mission of healthcare industry provides unique challenges. These attacks if not handled carefully, have ramifications that go beyond financial loss as well as a breach of patient privacy.

Cyber-attacks for example ransomware a type of malware where the organization systems and files are infected making them inaccessible until the payment of a ransom is made (Shenoy & Appel, 2017). If this takes place, the organization critical processes are affected. Most processes are slowed and sometimes they are completely in operational. The healthcare organizations are therefore, forced to utilize traditional methods of pen and paper which slow down medical processes. This has impacted the organization by affecting the daily operations as well as preventing accesses to the healthcare systems and files.

Cyber-attacks have a significant impact on data breaching. According to Verizon (2016), healthcare organizations experience higher chances of data breach as compared to other sectors. Malware is used by cybercriminals to access medical databases thereby accessing personal health information which is considered valuable. In the long run, data breaches in the work setting reduced patient trust with the organization therefore, it threatens human life as well as patient safety.

According to Coventry & Branley, (2018) in Cybersecurity in healthcare: A narrative review of trends, threats and ways forward, there are growing concerns regarding the security of data and devices in our healthcare organizations. The authors further note that the healthcare industry today is prone to cybercrime because of its valuable data as well as its weak defenses. The notable cybersecurity breaches include hospital ransomware attacks, health information theft and attacks on medical devices. From the article, some of the impacts of the issue to the healthcare organization include data breaches that decrease the patient trust towards the organization. Cybercrime cripples the healthcare systems and slowing down patient care services thereby endangering human life. There are no 100% effective ways to address the healthcare issue. However, every health care organization needs to develop cyber resilience and risk management process in order to prevent cybersecurity breaches. This article presents the following strategies:

In another article on Cybersecurity in Hospitals: A Systematic, Organizational Perspective, the authors point out that the health care industry has lagged behind when it comes to cybersecurity as compared to other industries (Jalali & Kaiser2018). The results from an interview carried out in a hospital showed that healthcare organizations particularly hospitals need to set regulations as well as policies that stipulated the level of cybersecurity. This article concludes that hospital information officers and information security officers need to reduce complexities in the endpoint as well as improve stakeholder alignment. The authors note that the strategies can provide solution to cybersecurity problems in the healthcare organization rather than blindly setting up more resources to solve the issue.

In summary, some of the strategies that other healthcare organizations have utilized to prevent cyber-attacks include:

The above-mentioned strategies can have a positive impact in securing our systems from any cyber-attacks. It will enable our employees, patients and other healthcare support staff to be aware of the adverse impact of cyber-attacks in the organization. In addition, it allows the organization to invest in up-to-date technology that can identify any unauthorized devices in their network, put in place strict policies and guidelines to enhance cybersecurity, optimizing the organization architecture in order to control the complexity, ensuring that there is stakeholder alignment this will reduce the chances cyberattacks in the organization.

  1. Cyber resilience through conducting regular as well as secure backups.
  2. Ensuring security patches are put in place by keeping up-to-date.
  3. Maintaining high standards of confidentiality by minimizing patient information access and anonymization of data.
  4. Ensuring secure transfer of data through an investment of necessary systems and processes.
  5. Building security into the employees as well as patient culture.
  6. Investing in cyber-insurance.
  7. Protect health care providers’ mobile devices, the organization has utilized encryption and other security augmentation such as the ability to have additional authentication.
  8. Limiting access to organization network, controlling the physical access to the organization, limiting access to the health organization information, ensuring that organization data is stored far away from the main system as well as conducting a regular data backup, using the firewall as well as installing the best anti-virus software while ensuring its continuous updates.

References

Claunch, D., & McMillan, M. (2013). Determining the right level for your IT security investment: a rural medical center facing threats of data breaches discovered that hospital IT security investments go beyond just dollars and cents. Healthcare Financial Management67(5), 100-104.

Coventry, L., & Branley, D. (2018). Cybersecurity in healthcare: A narrative review of trends, threats, and ways forward. Maturitas113, 48-52.

Jalali, M. S., & Kaiser, J. P. (2018). Cybersecurity in hospitals: a systematic, organizational perspective. Journal of medical Internet research20(5), e10059.

Kruse, C. S., Frederick, B., Jacobson, T., & Monticone, D. K. (2017). Cybersecurity in healthcare: A systematic review of modern threats and trends. Technology and Health Care25(1), 1-10. Retrieved from

Shenoy, A., & Appel, J. M. (2017). Safeguarding confidentiality in electronic health records. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics26(2), 337-341.

Verizon, (2016). Verizon’s 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report. Retrieved from accessed 26/08/2019

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