Healthcare IT News - June 2008 - (Page 15)

www.HealthcareITNews.com hoSpItalS & IdNs June 2008 ■ Healthcare IT News 15 seCuRITy Continued from page 13 Va. critical care hospital goes wireless By BeRNIe MoNegaIN, Editor and medical students often use laptops, and some download patient data onto USB memor y sticks, which are small and easily lost. As a result, said Phillips, institutions should consider locking George down USB ports, McCulloch removing CD burners from computers, and transitioning to thin client technology. But such changes might ignite faculty resistance in an academic medical environment, suggested Frank Clark, CIO at the Medical University of South Carolina. Clark said that physicians used to “academic freedom” don’t like their use of technology to be constrained. “You can manage desktops in a community-based setting, but you can’t really lock down devices at an academic medical center,” said Clark. “We encrypt all data on devices that are going to be taken off campus, but it’s not as easy to police as you might think.” The IT staff at MUSC emphasizes ongoing education programs for providers and others who have access to patient records, but Clark says that sometimes it is not enough. “Whenever there is a privacy breach at a medical center, everyone wants to use IT as the scapegoat,” Clark said. “But people need to recognize that technology doesn’t substitute for poor workflow or bad processes. Technology can’t make security watertight if there isn’t good personnel management.” In addition to the hardware changes that Phillips recommends, there are other security options that academic medical centers can institute. George McCulloch, deputy CIO at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., says role-based security can be effective, but a surprisingly large number of organizations don’t use it. He said it is critical that academic medical centers have good auditing tools in place. “In the old days, there was a single patient record, and in some sense it was safer,” McCulloch said. “Nowadays, the electronic patient record is more accessible, and people should be excited about that because it helps you get better care, but there is also more opportunity for harm.” Academic medical centers still have a long way to go before patient records are completely secure, said Clark, and CIOs learn from incidents at places like UCLA. “As far as security goes, I don’t think anybody is totally compliant,” Clark said. “We spend a lot of time trying to protect patient information, but the hackers and interlopers are getting more clever every day.” ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: SecurItY 0608 – The Virginia Commonwealth University Health System will deploy wireless technology in its new 385,000-squarefoot critical care hospital to ensure guaranteed connectivity for mission- and life-critical applications. The hospital will roll out Horizon, a wireless system developed by Richardson, Texas-based InnerWireless, Inc. richMonD, VA Horizon will provide wireless coverage for the new facility’s wireless telemetry, cellular phones, PDAs, clinical carts, laptops, tablet PCs, pagers and two-way radios. “Because the acuity of our patients is so high, it’s imperative that our wireless infrastructure work at all times so clinicians can receive alerts, notifications and information about their patients in real-time via the numerous wireless “Because the acuity of our patients is so high, it’s imperative that our wireless infrastructure WoRK at all tIMES ” – Rich Pollack devices that we will have in place,” said Rich Pollack, vice president and CIO of Virginia Commonwealth University Health System. “By integrating Horizon with PatientKeeper Physician Information System, physicians will have guaranteed wireless access to lab and test results, medication histories, allergies, vital signs and other patient information at the point-of-care,” said Ed Cantwell, president, CEO and chairman of InnerWireless. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: wIreLeSS 0608 l Surgery makes us a little queasy. But technology is something we’re quite comfortable with. We have the utmost respect for you and your profession, so we’re always available to help with your technology. With a team of IT experts who understand the technology needs of the healthcare industry, CDW can offer an unmatched level of knowledge. Our healthcare account team is continuously trained to stay up to date, and our technology specialists can answer your most difficult technology questions. At CDW, we’re all about helping those who help others. CDWHealthcare.com 888.419.7377 ©2008 CDW Corporation l e l Connect: cDw 0608 www.HealthcareITNews.com HealthcareITNews.com CDWHealthcare.com HealthcareITNews.com

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Healthcare IT News - June 2008

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