The implementation of electronic medical records (EMR) and electronic health records (EHR) in the healthcare industry is a substantial improvement for doctors, physicians, assistants, nurses and other medical professionals. These systems consolidate records, expedite filing and retrieval, and, in conjunction with backup software, they offer unmatched protection against everyday permanent threats of loss, such as natural disasters.
While the technology delivers streamlined operations and more complete patient records, it also brings confusion and frustration for those who don’t know how to use it. If your organization recently obtained or is considering EMR or EHR software, you should be aware of the role IT professionals play in EMR training and the integration of these technological advancements.
Healthcare IT Professionals and Security
It’s safe to say that with the advent of EMR and EHR, the healthcare industry needs IT security experts to manage the fast-paced, constantly upgraded overload of technology that medical professionals don’t have the time to keep up with. The abundance of EMR training resources can help your employees and staff members learn the software, but what about the security of the records?
Brad Elster, president of Healthcare IT leaders, said, “EMR installations at U.S. hospitals, fueled by federal incentives, have been a major catalyst for IT job growth in healthcare. Many of our hospital and health system clients have seen their IT departments grow by 50 percent in the past few years.”
There is a variety of healthcare technology that needs continuous monitoring, updating and maintenance.
The overwhelming amount of significant data breaches in recent years can attest to the need for more severe preventative security measures. In 2014, there were about four times as many breaches in the healthcare industry as in financial, government and education. As EMR becomes a standard software in healthcare facilities across the nation, it’s safe to say that medical practices need to understand the importance of optimal security for their patient medical records. This includes using the expertise from an IT professional who can stay on top of EMR security.
IT Professionals and EMR
EHR training is one of the most sought after and coveted skills by healthcare employers. Inadequate EHR/EMR training has been a huge issue for organizations and their staff members who don’t possess these skills. In turn, this leads to ineffectiveness, decreased productivity, faulty training, halted transitions to EMR and untapped potential of the software.
IT professionals offer medical offices many attractive benefits. First and foremost, employees who work with sensitive data (such as medical records) must be trained to value their devices and protect them with crucial importance.
Training is critical to harness the full potential of your EHR. An IT professional who specializes in EMR/EHR software and data security can easily train staff members and answer their questions about what is and is not acceptable. This leaves no room for negligence or error that puts fault on staff members because they always have a trusted resource on-hand.
Many hospitals, doctor’s offices and other medical practices are still running on old operating systems and using outdated applications that could pose a serious security risk. Poorly patched devices are a big, red bullseye for hackers and cyber attacks. An IT security professional would be able to keep track of the updates and upgrades needed to maintain optimal security of not only EMR software, but other software and hardware pertaining to the healthcare field or your profession in particular.
Hiring an IT Professional
The main thing you should look for when hiring a healthcare IT security professional for your EMR and your organization is experience. While there are more specialized degree programs that help young IT professionals focus on specific areas, they need the right experience in order to properly safeguard your medical data. Even if the experience is minimal, the willingness to gain the necessary industry experience is just as good. Look for internships, side projects or any additional training a prospective IT professional could use in the healthcare industry, as well as EMR/EHR security training courses.
Optimizing EMR Security
While data breaches pose a threat for medical professions that harbor EMR, breaches are not the biggest threat to the safety of patient data. To safeguard your electronic patient medical records from the most common types of catastrophic events, including natural disasters, hardware failure, viruses and human error, your organization needs to invest in a HIPAA compliant, reliable backup provider.
Offsite, online backup is the only foolproof way to ensure your patients’ data is always retrievable when you need it, to comply with HIPAA regulations. With quick retrieval and continuous and automatic backup solutions, your practice won’t miss a beat when disaster strikes. Take a look at Nordic Backup’s secure and affordable HIPAA compliant backup plans for your organization. 
