Data protection critical to a hospital’s ‘health’
With the recent breach in security at the NSA by Edward Snowden, we all need to learn that IT security is as paramount to client safety as clinical excellence, good staff and effective management.
Most of the private sector is proof that regular examination of procedures to ensure compliance with data security and data protection will ensure that data is kept secure. Patient data must always be kept on secure servers, without access to the internet, to ensure that data cannot be compromised. All hospitals should carry out regular reviews to ensure that access levels are appropriate. It appears some do not, based on the article in Tuesday’s Irish Examiner.
If a staff member moves department or leaves, what procedures do they have for IT access? As the internet becomes more dangerous, and with so many attacks on companies and their networks, our hospitals would be well-advised to ensure that they do not become a national scandal, if any data is stolen by a hacker, or if a network is breached.
