How To Include Cybersecurity In Your Privacy Impact Assessment

Keeping information safe and secure is a challenging development for businesses of all sizes over the last few years. Remote working and using cloud hosted services forced healthcare practices to change, or at least re-examine, their cybersecurity practices and protocols.

According to CyberEdge’s Cyberthreat Defense Report, 85% of organizations suffered from a successful cyberattack in 2021.

A privacy impact assessment (PIA) is an important tool to help understand the risks to patient health information and your healthcare business.

Does Your PIA Include Cybersecurity Risks and Mitigation Plan?

You should review your PIA regularly, at least annually, and update your risk mitigation plans when there is a change in your administrative, technical, or physical practices. You also need to consider that the threat environment external to your business, like the increasing risk of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, can damage your business.

In this Episode #107 of the Practice Management Nuggets Podcast, Jean L. Eaton, Practical Privacy Coach with Information Managers shows us how to include cybersecurity risks in your PIA.

#BeCyberSmart #PrivacyImpactAssessment #PIA #HIA #PHIPA

See all the show notes and links on our website!

https://PracticeManagementNuggets.Live

Have you ever said, If only

• our referral backlog was caught up,
• our incoming faxes were sorted,
• our billing team was more confident
• someone could help with the incoming phone calls during our busiest hours or lunch hour

then you want to listen to our episode today how virtual medical office assistants and receptionists can help your healthcare practice.

Today my guest expert is Kyle Sherritt of Sherritt Services, and he will show us how a virtual medical office administration service can improve the bottom line of your healthcare practice and improve the patient experience.

See all the show notes at PracticeManagementNuggets.Live/virtual-medical-office-administration/

Have you ever had an employee who has made a mistake and now you’re scrambling about what to do next?

Your business needs a set of reasonable rules and guidelines for employees to follow. This helps to create a safe and respectful workplace and protect the privacy rights of your patients and employees.

Your healthcare practice should have a written policy and procedure to guide you in your response to a privacy and security incident.

Sometimes, our employees have been directly involved in the incident. For example:

• Petty theft (personal gain)
• Snooping in patient or employee records (disregarding policies)
• Faxing a report to the wrong recipient (carelessness)
• Using patient or employee information to cause harm (malice)

When employees and healthcare providers fail to meet our expectations sanctions or discipline may be appropriate.

In this episode #105 of the Practice Management Nuggets Podcast, guest human resources expert Stacey Messner, Leader in HR gives practical advice to clinic managers and privacy officers to navigate difficult conversations after an employee makes a mistake, addressing employee performance improvement and workplace restoration practices.

Show Notes

00:00   Welcome

01:00   Introduction Stacey Messner, Leader In HR

StaceyMessner.com

05:29   Stacey Messner’s #1 Tip for Healthcare Providers and Clinic Managers about managing human resources.

06:37   Scenario: Privacy incident in Ontario using workplace restoration

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC), PHIPA Decision 163. 20221-10-19. https://decisions.ipc.on.ca/ipc-cipvp/phipa/en/item/515275/index.do

10:09   Workplace restoration is about trust

14:39   Scenario: Looking at patient records

17:36   HR Checklist

19:16   What happened from their perspective? Being a better listener

26:37   Other scenarios

33:29   Consequences – Practice Management Success Tips

34:21   Get Stacey Messner Listen Differently Tip Sheet at https://StaceyMessner.com  

See all the show notes: https://PracticeManagementNuggets.Live

In this episode #104 of the Practice Management Nuggets Podcast, Lind Stirling will walk you through some of the essentials for creating a profitable book that represents you well.

• Would you like to help family members of your patients to be better prepared to support your patient after treatments?
• Would you like to coach your patients in between in-person visits?
• Do you ever feel that you could help more people avoid / prevent illness if they just did this one thing that you specialize in?
• Do you want your patients to be more compliant with the follow-up actions that help your patients recover faster?
• Would you like more referrals from other providers to your practice?

You can accomplish these goals when you build your authority, appeal, and profits as an author.

When it comes to writing a book, people are usually in one camp or another. The first camp thinks it’s easy and the second camp thinks it’s too daunting to tackle.

The fact of the matter is that both groups need strategies and with these strategies they can be successful.

Breaking strategies down into manageable nuggets is where authors find success. 

Before you even consider strategies, however, you need to think about your why. That’s where the power of success lies. Once you are clear about your why, that gives you the mental energy to complete your book.

Linda will walk you through some of the essentials for creating a profitable book that represents you well.

If you have thought about becoming an authorpreneur, self-publishing, or want to publish in a traditional format, Linda Stirling can help you with that!

See all the show notes: https://PracticeManagementNuggets.Live

You've probably heard about the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) investigation report into Babylon Health. The investigation report provides privacy guidance for vendors of virtual health solutions and the healthcare providers who use the digital health solutions. This is a great demonstration on why it is so important to ensure that you have current information management agreements with your vendors. Jean Eaton shares tips to help you keep your vendor agreements current and explains why it is important to the protection of patient information and the reputation of your business.

Use the lessons from the Babylon Health Investigation Report as guidance to healthcare providers, clinic managers, privacy officers, and vendors to develop and implement virtual healthcare solutions in your practice. Jean Eaton shares tips regarding

• key criteria when reviewing (or preparing) your privacy impact assessment (PIA)
• policies, procedures
• information management agreements (IMA)
• privacy and security awareness training
• data storage outside of Alberta

See all the show notes at https://PracticeManagementNuggets.Live