5 Ways Tech Can Help Patients Feel Safer in Your Healthcare Facility
Technology allows healthcare organizations to better serve patients while also making them feel safer when being cared for.
Photo: wladimir1804, Adobe Stock
Did you know that a whopping 81% of professionals agree that IT represents major strategic business support, whether you’re talking about the healthcare industry or another field?
Within the healthcare industry, however, there are a number of benefits technology can provide for your business objectives. One of these benefits is making patients feel more secure about your facility.
This guide explores a few different ways that technology can help patients feel better about your organization’s overall security. Plus, it provides know-how for implementing those methods in your own organization.
Why Technology in Healthcare Matters
The healthcare industry prioritizes consumer-driven experiences. Hospitals focus on what the patients think of the environment, staff, and the overall quality of experience and care provided. Thanks to technology, more patients are now becoming digitally empowered and going online to look for the best healthcare provider for their needs.
Because of the shift toward technology, the healthcare marketplace continues to be more competitive, with more patients having their needs met through innovative measures rather than traditional methods.
But shifting to a more advanced and robust system also means healthcare facilities must generate the right technology strategies. When used the right way, overall patient experience gets improved, allowing healthcare organizations to stay competitive and reputable.
It also means hospitals should use technology for most of their processes, including administrative tasks, research, and clinical decisions. And when you know how to leverage tech platforms, you can guarantee better patient satisfaction, engagement, and overall outcomes in your organization.
How Technology Makes Patients Feel More Secure
Now that you know why technology matters for healthcare organizations, it’s time to look into a few ways it can help patients feel more secure and enhance their trust in your healthcare facility.
1. Reduces risk posed by BYOD policies
BYOD policies in healthcare are essential for various reasons. One significant advantage is allowing healthcare personnel real-time data service access. BYOD policies ensure you get high-quality information on your patients 24/7, without biases and errors. This ensures your hospital always has access to valid and accurate data.
BYOD policies can also help boost your hospital’s compliance and engagement through notifications, emails, and SMS. Doctors can create more personal connections with their patients by communicating through their devices.
Another benefit of BYOD is accessibility and usability. Let’s face it — almost everyone is using their phones pretty much 24/7. This allows healthcare experts to reach their patients faster and more conveniently.
And finally, security and safety — the main benefit of BYOD policies. Using your personal device to access patient records and communicate with them allows stronger patient data protection. Your patients value this, and it’s also one requirement within HIPAA standards.
But BYOD policies also come with risks. When your device enables automatic data backup, your patients’ records can automatically be uploaded to your personal cloud storage, which is a breach of HIPAA standards.
Using technology, you can establish mobile device management (MDM) systems to ensure patient and healthcare personnel’s data security. The system provides encrypted communication channels to prevent PII leaks or data breaches.
MDM systems also enable secure login and enhanced authorization so that data isn’t shared with unauthorized individuals. Plus, they can wipe data remotely from stolen or lost devices.
2. Encrypts sensitive data
Data encryption is essential for healthcare facility security. It’s part of HIPAA compliance, together with the proper safeguarding of electronically protected health information (ePHI). These regulations were established to ensure protection from online threats.
Unprotected ePHI can lead to costly data breaches, compromising the patient’s sensitive information. Moreover, hackers and thefts have become common, and healthcare organizations are their common target.
Healthcare facilities should use technology to ensure the security of ePHI, including messages and agreements exchanged between healthcare workers and patients. Some effective ways to ensure proper encryption of sensitive data are:
- Encryption of all devices used in handling, managing, and communicating your patient data
- Multi-factor authentication for all systems
- Tracking and monitoring of all stolen and lost devices
- End-to-end encryption of emails and other messaging platforms to prevent interception from hackers
3. Improves medical equipment and infrastructure maintenance
Like any establishment, healthcare facilities need constant maintenance of daily operations and resources, assets and infrastructure, equipment, budget, vendors and contractors, etc. It can be challenging for your maintenance team, but it’s the only way to ensure that medical equipment runs smoothly and doesn’t cause potentially harmful developments.
The hospital maintenance team must create an airtight schedule to ensure machine maintenance and inspection. When devices need to be shut down for cleaning, repair, or maintenance, there should be an automatic backup or alternative.
Healthcare facilities should also adopt predictive maintenance through technology. It’s a unique maintenance strategy ideal for hospitals with high-risk assets.
Predictive maintenance monitors and tracks the equipment’s real-time condition through vibration analysis, alerting the maintenance team when problems or errors arise. It also prevents delayed responses to faulty devices or infrastructure in the hospital.
4. Secures remote services
It’s no surprise that telehealth has grown immensely after the pandemic. Remote medical services are now more common, giving patients a new sense of satisfaction. Since consulting and communication can be done online or through phone calls, patients appreciate the convenience they experience.
Technology has become the patients’ best friend. Because of this shift, even people in remote and rural areas are now getting access to the medical services they need.
Telemedicine has also improved overall patient outcomes through remote monitoring devices and electronic health records. This has allowed healthcare providers to accurately track their patients’ progress and formulate treatment plans.
Some of the most effective ways technology has ensured the security of patient data in remote medical services include:
- Firewall protection to improve access controls and prevent phishing attacks and ransomware
- Secure two-way communication using secure texting tools to allow protected communication of patients’ health concerns and comply with HIPAA
- Remote patient monitoring by leveraging encrypted cloud services where healthcare workers can record and track their patients’ sensitive information — such as vitals
5. Ensures HIPAA compliance
Aside from improving overall patient experience and satisfaction, leveraging technology also ensures your hospital keeps up with HIPAA compliance. First of all, technology ensures HIPAA compliance by strengthening all internal audit processes.
You can improve these internal audit processes by looking for robust HIPAA compliance auditing software. Such a platform helps with preparing the proper documentation on internal audits and performing risk assessments.
Secondly, technology also ensures more robust on-premise security. It can strengthen the security of your available devices and data storage facilities. Technology helps establish digital access controls to ensure proper data management, especially with your ePHI.
Final Thoughts
Technology allows healthcare organizations to provide better and more comprehensive services to their patients. Additionally, technology can actually make patients feel more secure about your healthcare facility.
Implementing technology in your healthcare facility could be a game-changer when it comes to client trust. Consider getting started with tech measures to protect and serve your patients better.
Ben Herzberg is the Chief Scientist and VP of Marketing at Satori, the DataSecOps platform. He is an experienced tech leader and book author with a background in endpoint security, analytics, and application and data security.
The views expressed by guest bloggers and contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Campus Safety.
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