Patient safety is one of the most important aspects of effective healthcare. Anything you and your team can do to protect the privacy of patients or improve their care is another step towards a happier, healthier community. In honor of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, let’s take a look at how promoting cyber safety and awareness will help you protect your patients:

Cybersecurity Awareness in Healthcare: Why It Matters

Cybersecurity probably isn’t the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of healthcare, but prioritizing safety within technology is crucial for patient protection and a successful practice. Compliance regulations, such as HIPAA, outline requirements for protecting sensitive patient data, including how data should be stored, shared, and backed up electronically. Detailed cybersecurity measures are necessary to stay in line with these standards and prevent patient information from falling into the wrong hands. Additionally, the reputation of your practice can take a huge hit after a data breach—one survey found that 66% of people wouldn’t continue business with a company that experienced a data breach. In short, cybersecurity awareness is absolutely necessary for maintaining a successful healthcare practice.

Promoting Cybersecurity Awareness for Patient Protection

Protecting your patients’ personal and medical information is a key part of providing quality care. Here are seven ways you and your team can be more cyber-aware and keep your patients safe.

1. Train Employees

Most cybersecurity errors made by employees are unintentional and the result of a lack of information. Your staff already knows how important patient data is, and they want to protect it, but they probably just don’t know how. Holding frequent trainings, sharing monthly newsletters, running disaster simulations, and highlighting best practices on posters can all help employees understand their responsibilities in regard to cybersecurity. Make expectations explicit and check in often to make sure team members are up-to-date on current policies.

2. Keep Up with Updates

Old and outdated systems leave gaps that are easy for hackers to exploit. Software updates and patches are designed to fill these gaps and make your technology and patient databases more secure. So don’t exit out of that annoying update popup. Let the program run at the moment, or schedule a time when you won’t be using the device—and stick to it.

3. Establish Detailed Password Protocols

Did you know that close to 75% of people around the world don’t follow best password practices? That means that without specific guidelines that are seriously enforced, your employees won’t intuitively choose strong passwords or preserve password security. With some training in cybersecurity awareness, however, you can keep systems secure. Teach your team how to create strong passwords and make clear requirements (such as including certain kinds of characters or using unique passwords). Consider using a password manager to control access to information platforms and help team members keep track of their login info.

4. Develop an IRP

Just as you never know when a medical emergency will happen, you never know when a technology disaster could strike. And just as you have plans for keeping your patients stable and helping them recover after an incident, you need plans for caring for your IT systems in these moments. Building an incident response plan includes designating specific roles for each team member, determining communication techniques, planning data backup and recovery, and deciding how you’ll get back up and running after a disaster. These plans ensure you’ll be able to continue caring for your patients and maintain confidentiality during and after an incident.

5. Manage and Backup Data

Your patients’ personal and medical information is one of the most important things your IT systems house, and your business data is one of your most crucial assets for smooth operations. All of this can be lost or stolen in the case of an outage or breach, leaving you unable to care for patients effectively and violating their personal privacy. As part of your IRP and cybersecurity awareness plans, outline data backup and security strategies. Choose a platform with strong access controls and make sure your data is organized. Implement backup techniques and test them regularly to confirm data integrity.

6. Designate a Compliance Leader

Standards like HIPPA are constantly changing, and it can be difficult to keep up when you’re focused on serving your patients. Choose a team member to be in charge of staying informed about compliance and making needed adjustments to data management methods.  This way, nobody will simply assume standards are being met, and you can have someone to refer to about compliance.

7. Get Expert Help from an MSP

IT support and cybersecurity awareness may not be your area of expertise, and trying to balance these responsibilities while caring for your patients can be overwhelming. Hiring an MSP that specializes in healthcare IT services is a great way to prioritize cybersecurity while still focusing your efforts on patients. MSPs have all the tools necessary to train your employees, keep your software and hardware up-to-date, implement access controls, create disaster recovery and data backup plans, and manage your compliance. Their technology expertise and your medical expertise will pair perfectly to create the safest, most positive experience for your patients.

Keep Your Patients Safe with iTology

At iTology, we’re experts when it comes to cybersecurity awareness in the healthcare industry. When you partner with us, you’ll have full access to a wide variety of services and tools designed to protect your patients and help you care for them more effectively. When it comes to patient safety and cybersecurity, there’s no better choice than iTology. Send us a message to get started on improving cybersecurity in your practice.