Electronic Medical Records (ERM) has become essential in the management of data in healthcare facilities. Health Insurance Portability and Account Act (HIPAA) is useful too in the provision of security and data privacy for medical facilities. The spike in data violations particularly in recent years has contributed to the growing relevance of the law in the United States. Healthcare providers in the country are also grappling with increased cases of cyber-attacks on their stored information. HIPAA specifically helps health facilities to offer continuous health insurance coverage for employees who happen to lose or change their jobs. Moreover, courtesy of electronic storage of crucial information, the legislation reduces the cost of retrieving and transacting information. Boufahja et al. (2015), notes that health Level Seven International (HL7) guides the process of exchanging and production of electronic health records. HL7 is an essential component of HIPAA which is crucial in aiding interoperability in health facilities.
According to Narain & Dubey (2015), medical informatics constitutes one of the most significant challenges the healthcare providers in the US face. Medical facilities continue to face challenges in the development and maintenance of crucial information. Significantly, hospitals are required to establish a data management system which allows them to de-identify relevant patient information with ease. DL7, a core element of HIPAA, therefore serves as the guide for health facilities in the process of integrating information with the objective of reducing unnecessary disclosure. Through anonymization removal of the connection between particular data set and subject helps health facilities to protect their data by changing features of stored data set to create a more distinctive that relates to numerous data subjects (Boufahja et al., 2015). This is important in ensuring that a specific data is not easily accessible. Besides, HL7 helps hospitals to fulfill HIPAA requirements by increasing the volume of data stored within the hospital in an organized and secure manner for easier retrieval by the management.
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In the observation of Narain & Dubey (2015), pseudonymization is another way through which HL7 helps medical facilities in the country to uphold integrity in data storage and management. These standards provide a way through which information is connected to a single individual across several data records is harmonized in a way that does not identify the person’s identity. Therefore, as an integral aspect of HIPAA, HL7 makes it easier for hospitals to access patient information. Powered by a data-based query language, the standards are instrumental in sending and retrieving data with an assurance of safety. The current complicated operations within medical facilities demand the establishment of a secure data management system which stresses the confidentiality and security of stored information. HL7 standards as tools for managing data within the healthcare industry have redefined the manner in which information is stored, retrieved and used in hospitals (Narain&Dubey, 2015). The standards have also undergone change to keep up with the standards in conformity with changes taking place in the information management field.
In summary, the responsibility of providing quality healthcare services demands that medical facilities pay special attention to the systems of information management within their establishments. The threat of cyber attacks is increasing in nature and stature as agents of cybercrime regularly resort to different mechanisms to carry out their illegal activities. Thus there is a need for healthcare facilities to safeguard critical patient medical records by integrating the right mechanisms to protect against data breaches within their organizations. HL7 thus serves as an essential component in the quest of hospitals to guard against data breaches in the spirit of HIPAA.
References
Boufahja, A., Poiseau, E., Thomazon, G., &Bergé, A. G. (2015). Model-based analysis of HL7 CDA R2 conformance and requirements coverage .EJBI, 11(2).
Narain, P., &Dubey, S. K. (2015, September). Analysis and implementation of transcription and HL7 messaging system. In Reliability, Infocom Technologies and Optimization (ICRITO)(Trends and Future Directions), 2015 4th International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
