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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Health Care

  A new study revealed an enormous patient safety gap – up to 90 percent of patient injuries, infections and other safety issues are not being recorded.   What does this mean for hospitals?  What does this mean for patients?  What does this mean for regulators? Lessons Learned:  Hospitals face serious patient safety and patient quality challenges and the key to improving patient safety will be their People – management, nurses, doctors, staff, partners, business associates, etc.  Hospitals must ensure every individual has situational awareness and accountability for better decision making and a comprehensive incident reporting and incident management platform will be critical to get theRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Health Care, Information Privacy

  Despite stricter privacy and security regulations, hospitals are struggling to protect patient information.  According to a recent Ponemon Study, breaches are costing the health care industry $6 billion annually. The top three causes of breaches: Unintentional employee action Lost or stolen computing devices Third-party accidents   Lessons Learned:  Failure to protect sensitive and personally identifiable information is expensive and damaging to a health care organization’s reputation.  Organizations need to complement their general awareness with ongoing situational awareness programs to ensure all employees (and third-parties) understand their individual roles and responsibilities for protecting sensitive patient information.  With mounting regulatory changes and the move to electronicRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Health Care, Regulatory Compliance

  Cignet Health is facing a $4.3 M civil penalty after violating the HIPAA Privacy Rule and failing to cooperative with HHS’s subsequent probe.  This is the first civil money penalty for a violation of HIPAA. Lessons Learned: The Feds mean business and there will be more fines and lawsuits and more embarrassing headlines for health care organizations that do not take compliance, risk assessments and incident management seriously.  Is your organization meeting all HIPAA/HITECH compliance requirements?  Do you have the necessary documentation in place to provide HHS with information in the event of an audit? Does your documentation help your organization demonstrate all appropriateRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Financial, Health Care, Information Privacy, Information Security

  According to Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report, there were 286 million new threats in 2010 which equals an average of about 783,561 new threats per day.  The report also points to dramatic increases in both frequency and sophistication of targeted attacks and continued growth of social networking sites to distribute attacks. Lessons learned:  Your people are under attack…how is your organization keeping your people up to date on new attacks and new threats?Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Health Care, Incident Reporting, Legal

  A previous Lessons Learned Blog mentioned the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and a special bounty program within the Act for whistleblowers.  Did you see it? An attorney at the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s Annual National Institute legal update says healthcare providers may be heading into a storm of whistleblower suits that could cause serious problems for the unprepared. The attorney predicts the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could lead to an explosion of whistleblower lawsuits because the new law does not require the plaintiff to have direct knowledge of alleged fraud to file a suit. So if youRead More →