Hospital Privacy, Security Officers Make Their Wish Lists

A former UCLA Healthcare System employee who admitted to illegally reading private and confidential medical records, mostly from celebrities and other high-profile patients, was sentenced to prison in April.

Debra A. Mikels, OTR/L, says she wishes for the day when safeguarding confidential information becomes embedded in staff members' daily work and is not something that is thought of as something "extra."

And how to make that happen? Mikels, corporate manager, confidentiality, at Partners HealthCare, the Boston-area healthcare system, is also wishing for the continued promotion of best practices and lessons learned with respect to safeguarding that confidential information.

5.      A smooth road to reach the era of the total EHR. "I wish that the meaningful use journey to total EHR becomes less cumbersome as time goes on," says Boggan.

Nancy Davis, MS, RHIA, director of privacy/security officer at Ministry Health Care in Sturgeon Bay, WI, says technology can provide better patient access to their medical records. She wishes for patient portals interfaced with patient personal health records (PHR), giving patients access to the information they need to manage their health.

6.      Full-proof encryption processes. "I wish we would just go ahead and effectively implement a data encryption program that meets the HITECH Act criteria," says Frank Ruelas, director of compliance and risk management at Maryvale Hospital in Phoenix and principal, HIPAA College, in Casa Grande, AZ.