Sensitive Data and the Pharmacy Industry
By Kat Sanders of Pharmacy Technician Certification
It has been said that the data access chain is only as strong as the weakest link; so in order to strengthen the chain and ensure that it does not break, we need to identify the weakest links in the pharma sector and take the necessary steps to strengthen them.
There is a surfeit of Information today, and although we have come up with ways and means to store them for eternity, we are still not able to ensure their security.
Information is valuable only as long as it remains protected, and once in the hands of people who are likely to misuse it, it turns into a recipe for disaster.
Medical data and information is especially sensitive, and this is why it must be protected at all costs.
Acts like the HIPAA and others came into existence in order to protect the privacy of patients and safeguard their information, but when the data is spread across a diverse spectrum of industries, it gets harder to make sure that the security aspect remains important.
Most healthcare facilities have the necessary systems in place to ensure that they comply with regulations like the HIPAA and that patient data is handled responsibly and securely.
But when it comes to pharmacies, the security aspect is sometimes forgotten altogether, or even if it is remembered, it is as an afterthought rather than a basic necessity.
Pharmacies too have access to sensitive information, and pharmacists are responsible for coordinating with both doctors’ offices and representatives from insurance companies in order to fill out patients’ prescriptions correctly and accurately.
While licensed pharmacists are responsible for filling out prescriptions and dealing directly with patients, it falls to the pharmacy technician to handle the administrative aspects of the pharmacy.
And this includes handling sensitive records on a regular basis. If the technician concerned is not aware of the regulatory compliances to which medical data and information is subject, then there is a high probability that the security of the data could be compromised.
To prevent this from happening, measures should be taken to ensure that all those who handle sensitive data are made aware of the consequences of a data breach.
And for this to happen, licensing and certification is extremely important.
It increases both responsibility and accountability, both of which are invaluable when it comes to handling sensitive data in the pharmacy industry.
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Filed under: Breach, D&O Liability, FEATURE ARTICLE, Financial, Government, ISR News, Insider Threat, Kat Sanders, Uncategorized, hackers, healthcare, identity-theft, malware
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