I was chatting with a group of hospital CIOs recently and we were discussing network security and what makes their networks vulnerable. I was surprised by the difficulty each was having with remote access by physician office staff. It was unanimously one of the greatest concerns. While we know they have some longstanding, awesome partnerships with physician offices, there are three main vulnerabilities that have surfaced with remote network access:

1) Unknown terminations
2) Inappropriate access discipline
3) Access after termination

It is said that a heart attack is 80% preventable by eating well, exercising regularly, and keeping stress to a minimum*. While there is no official statistic yet, I would say that a cyber-attack is 95% preventable by vetting partners well, exercising caution, and keeping access points to a minimum. 

In Healthcare, as in life, the one constant on which we can all rely is change. While change usually brings better outcomes and moves us forward, the process of change can be painful. There are some, however, who come out of major change with a better-than-ever reputation and trusted partnerships with unlikely colleagues. How do they do it? How do they make it look so easy?

This time of year, every IT director and clinical manager is dreading one task in particular — the on-call schedule. Between PTO and legal holidays, the best employees can get really cranky when they are tasked with on-call Thanksgiving Day. 

It really puts a damper on the holidays. I’ve got to stay close by, I’ve got to tote my laptop everywhere, miss the big plays, and shush my kids when they’re just, well, being kids.

Patient identity is a hot topic everywhere we turn.

There are a lot of opinions out there and no one has conjured the perfect recipe just yet. The CHIME National Patient ID Challenge initiative has gotten a lot of buzz, and while the $1,000,000 in prize money is a nice motivator, I’d like to think that everyone has a more altruistic motivation. 

Whether you’re an IT geek, a provider, or a patient, we all have a stake in getting it right. We all win if we get it right. It is worth our time to make a plan, and execute it flawlessly.

Patient identity challenges are not going away

We had total control. We undid the registration, documentation, lab results, charges, and any other bits and pieces, only to re-enter them on the new patient and account. Boy did we complain! 

Interoperability can mean many things.

Interoperability is one of those words that conjures up very different visuals for each of us. Paper cups attached by string, the WiFi router in your home, the towers and satellites that allow your text to be sent across the world in milliseconds, and the NASA space station, are all examples of interoperability. 

In healthcare, it might mean electronically receiving the lab order from the doctor’s office, or aggregating and sharing in target-system-ese, the problems, meds, and allergies of every patient in Massachusetts.

Some might say the term interoperability is overused, but it’s shorter than saying, “take thousands of proprietary systems that were created as good ol', 'stand-alone, I don’t need anyone, I am king of the hill, you can’t boss me around,' and make them share information.”