New Mandatory Privacy Breach Notification Form

Posted on September 13, 2018 by Jean Eaton in Blog

AS of August 31, 2018, the new Alberta regulations regarding mandatory privacy breach notification requirements are in force.

The Alberta Minister of Health (MOH) and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) have published the mandatory notification forms for you to submit your privacy breach notifications.

You can download the forms here:

Notification to Alberta’s Minister of Health: http://www.health.alberta.ca/about/Health-Information-Act.html

Notification to the OIPC: https://www.oipc.ab.ca/forms.aspx

You Will Be FINED $50,000 if You Don't Do This!

If you don’t have an active privacy breach management program and are not compliant with mandatory privacy breach notification, you may be fined up to $50,000.

I recommend that you also use an internal privacy breach reporting form to document your investigation and reporting. The form will help you to navigate the privacy breach management process and record information for your internal use. You can then copy and paste the necessary information to the mandatory notification forms.

If you are a member of Practice Management Success, login and access the Procedure Privacy Breach Management Template including the Privacy Breach Report Form.

Not a member of Practice Management Success, yet?

What are you waiting for?

Get Your Practice Management Success membership

If you are a member of the 4 Step Response Plan, login and access my video and review of how to use the MOH and the OIPC forms.

What You Should Do Now

Update your current privacy breach reporting policies and procedures with the new requirements for mandatory privacy breach notification.
Include copies of these new forms in your procedures so that you can easily access them when needed.
Ensure that your custodians are aware of the new mandatory privacy beach notification regulations. You can share the e-book, Understanding Privacy Breach Notification, to assist you.

Additional Resources

Alberta Health has also added a new chapter, Duty to Notify, to their HIA Guidelines Manual. You can download this chapter here. This provides additional examples of privacy breaches and appropriate responses including comments from OIPC investigations.

When we know better, we can do better…

Jean L. Eaton is constructively obsessive about privacy, confidentiality, and security especially when it comes to the handling of personal health information. If you would like to discuss how I can help your practice, just send me an email. I am here to help you.

Jean L. Eaton
Your Practical Privacy Coach
INFORMATION MANAGERS

Alberta, Canada, health care, healthcare, mandatory breach notification, mandatory privacy breach notification, medical, Practice Management Success

Can You Use Text Messaging With Patients?

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Jean Eaton in Blog

Have you ever said…

“If only I had someone to ask!”

Each month, we discuss your questions about practice management, human resources issues, clinic management best practices, procedures, resources, practical privacy tips, and more in Practice Management Success membership.

In this Q&A, we're talking about:

Can you use text messaging with patients?

The short answer is, ‘Yes’.

The longer answer is ‘Yes, but . . . make sure that you are really clear about why you want to use text messaging, carefully plan the implementation and monitor its use.’

What is the Purpose for Texting?

Clinics are feeling pressured to provide texting as a communication option to their patients.

It is important to be clear about why you want to use texting.

Texting from the Patient to the Clinic

What is the primary purpose for patients to text the clinic? It may be because they are in a remote community and texting is the only way to keep in touch with their healthcare provider. You might choose to accept text messages for appointment requests or continuing care and treatment.

Texting is generally not a secure communication method. It is difficult to confirm the identity of both the sender and receiver which can result in both communication and medical error.

It is difficult to communicate clearly using text short form and emoji!

What Are the Risks?

As the custodian, you need to weigh the risks of using texting vs not using texting. For example, if your work includes assisting people who are in crisis or are otherwise at risk, you may decide that the risk to the patient who has access to their healthcare provider using unsecured text messaging is less of a risk than the patient who experiences a critical incident and does not have other access to their healthcare provider.

You must decide what are the acceptable risks and appropriate use of text messaging.

I find that creating scenarios is a good way to do help you set up your boundaries. In what situations is using text messaging OK? In what scenarios is it not appropriate to use text messaging? Are there alternative technologies that can better, and more securely, meet these needs?

Record your reasons about what you will – and what you won’t – accept in your text messaging solution as part of your project documentation and implementation training.

text messaging risks

Workflow When You Receive Text Messages from the Patient

Consider how you will document the communication from your patient into the patient’s health record.

Is the device to receive the text message registered with the clinic?
Who will receive the text message from the patient?
How will you transpose that meaningful communication with the patient to the patients’ health record?

Be guided by the discussions in your team and with your patients to develop your policies and risk mitigation plans.

Texting From the Clinic to the Patient

Is your goal of a text solution to automate a workflow like routine appointment reminders? Or, perhaps, some episodic messaging like offering follow up appointments to discuss test results?

Authorization

Remember that the custodian (physician, pharmacist, dentist, dental hygienist, chiropractor, and more) assumes the risk of using unsecure technology. You can’t transfer the risk to the patient. However, you can mitigate the risk of error and unauthorized use of the health information by creating rules for use and ensuring that the patient understands:

how the technology is used,
your offer to use the technology in your healthcare practice,
the risks to the patient’s privacy and security of their personal information,
the patients’ role to prevent misuse of their personal health information, and
an agreement to follow the rules about the technology solution.

If you are a member of Practice Management Success, click here to access the sample authorization agreement.

Mitigation strategies

Alternate Technology Solutions

There are some third party vendors that can help you with routine text messaging with your patients. Wherever possible, use two factor authentication. For example, you might have a system where the patient must enter a PIN number before they can read the entire message from the clinic.

There are trusted technology solutions that you can use for text messaging. Many EMR providers now allow the clinic to text message your patients right from the EMR or patients can access the EMR using a patient portal. This is, by far, the most efficient workflow. It is usually the most secure technology and integrates the communication into the patients’ health record without copying and pasting, uploading, or re-typing into the patient record.

Microquest’s Healthquest EMR, for example, offers integrated appointment reminders via email, text, or voice messaging. Clinics can also allow patients to book their own appointments online with an online calendar integrated to the clinic’s Healthquest EMR.

Alternate third party texting solutions from trusted vendors that we have interviewed on our podcast, Practice Management Nuggets for Your Healthcare Practice, include Bleen and ezReferral.

Bleen is a third party patient appointment management application that allows patients to register with your clinic to receive appointment reminders by text message or phone call. The system also provides a self-help solution to patients to schedule their own appointment with their healthcare providers.

Clients with Bleen have seen dramatic changes in their patient management resources – reducing 40% to 60% of phone calls and 75% of no shows.

Click here to listen to the Practice Management Nuggets interview with Chris Narine and Robert Cove of Bleen.

ezReferral provides a third party referral management application that improves communication between the patient and the referring and consulting providers. The system saves an average of 60 minutes of staff time for each referral and improves the patients’ access to health care in a timely, efficient manner. It also includes a built-in secure fax solution.

This solution is ideal for healthcare practices with referrals within the medical community and even better when you are working with multidisciplinary referral teams. ezReferral works well for both paper based and electronic medical record based practices.

Click here to listen to the Practice Management Nuggets interview with Dr. Denis Vincent of ezReferral.

Privacy Impact Assessment

Before you implement a text solution to your practice you need to update your privacy impact assessment (PIA) or prepare a new, project based PIA. This doesn't have to be a big undertaking but it is really important that you take the time to design and document your application and implementation.

Privacy Impact Assessment

If you need some help with your PIA, I encourage you to take a look at our on-line e-course, Protect Your Practice, Your Assets, and Your Patients with Privacy Impact Assessments.

Efficient work flow, clear procedures, and rules of use authorization with your patients improves the likelihood that text messages will be used the way that you intended. However, these practices does not make the technology breach-proof. Carefully consider the merits of text messaging and how you can mitigate the risks before implementing text messaging in your healthcare practice.

Tell me more about PIA's

Download the FREE Report - Can You Use Text Messaging with Patients?

If you are a member of Practice Management Success, login and access the webinar replay, and the patient authorization form template.

When we know better, we can do better…

Jean L. Eaton is constructively obsessive about privacy, confidentiality, and security expecially when it comes to the handling of personal health information. If you would like to discuss how I can help your practice, just send me an email. I am here to help you.

Jean L. Eaton
Your Practical Privacy Coach
INFORMATION MANAGERS

health care, healthcare, medical texting, Practice Management Success, Text messaging with patients, texting patients, texting with patients

How Will Mandatory Privacy Breach Reporting Affect You?

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Jean Eaton in Blog, PMN Upcoming

Mandatory Privacy Breach Reporting is Coming to Alberta!

Do you know how this will affect your healthcare practice?

. . then this free webinar is for you!

If you are a custodian–including physicians, optometrists, pharmacists, dentists, dental hygienists, chiropractors, nurse practitioners, podiatrists, midwives, optometrists, opticians, and more!–as defined by Alberta's Health Information Act, then . . then this free webinar is for you!

You need to know how mandatory privacy breach reporting will affect you!

In this Free Webinar, Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach will explain

what is a privacy breach
why a privacy breach is a significant problem
why have mandatory privacy breach reporting
offence and penalty provisions of the HIA
privacy breach notification requirements
what you need to do before August 31, 2018

Join us for this Free webinar

Recorded LIVE Thursday July 26, 2018

Register NOW to get immediate access to the replay and valuable resources to help you prevent privacy breach pain!

. . . available for a limited time!

Register for the FREE Live Webinar Replay!

Check your email for the link to the webinar!

You will also benefit from receiving notices about upcoming events on Privacy Nuggets and similar announcements.

We don't sell or share your personal information. Ever.

Jean L Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach with Information Managers Ltd.

“When we know better, we can we do better.”

As an employer and health care provider, you are responsible to provide training to all of your employees about privacy awareness. Protect your organization and your patients. Equip your staff with the information they need to confidently and correctly handle personal health information.

I am constructively obsessive about privacy and confidentiality in the healthcare sector–and I think you should be, too!

I help primary care practice managers and health care providers properly manage the risk of a privacy breach, stay out of jail, avoid fines AND keep an efficient practice!

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach Information Managers Ltd.

#PracticeManagementNuggets, amendment, health care, healthcare, mandatory privacy breach reporting, medical, privacy breach, privacy breach notification, Privacy Impact Assessment

A Privacy Impact Assessment is Easy – When You Start With a Good Plan!

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Jean Eaton in PMN Live

Do you need a PIA? or a PIA amendment?

If you are a healthcare provider or clinic manager and are not sure if you need a Privacy Impact Assessment . . . then this 30 minute free webinar is for you!

If you are a custodian–including physicians, optometrists, dentists, chiropractors, nurse practitioners, podiatrists, and more!–as defined by Alberta's Health Information Act, then you probably need a PIA.

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach will explain

what a PIA is,
why you need it, and
how to start planning to prepare a PIA.

Click the arrow >> below to play the video

“When we know better, we can we do better.”

As an employer and health care provider, you are responsible to provide training to all of your employees about privacy awareness. Protect your organization and your patients. Equip your staff with the information they need to confidently and correctly handle personal health information.

I am constructively obsessive about privacy and confidentiality in the healthcare sector–and I think you should be, too! I designed this course to assist healthcare providers, clinic managers, practice managers, privacy officers and independent healthcare practice owners provide practical privacy awareness training that was easy to implement, consistent content, cost-effective and meaningful to your day-to-day business.

When each member of your independent healthcare practice completes this privacy awareness course, you will have clearer expectations and confidence that your team will maintain the privacy, confidentiality and security of your patient’s health information. Give your patients the gift of privacy. Improve your healthcare practice with privacy awareness education.

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach Information Managers Ltd.

#PracticeManagementNuggets, amendment, health care, healthcare, medical, Privacy Impact Assessment

A Privacy Impact Assessment is Easy – When You Start With a Good Plan!

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Jean Eaton in Blog, PMN Replay, Practice Management Nugget Interview

Do you need a PIA? or a PIA amendment?

If you are a healthcare provider or clinic manager and are not sure if you need a Privacy Impact Assessment . . . then this 30 minute free webinar is for you!

If you are a custodian–including physicians, optometrists, dentists, chiropractors, nurse practitioners, podiatrists, and more!–as defined by Alberta's Health Information Act, then you probably need a PIA.

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach will explain

what a PIA is,
why you need it, and
how to start planning to prepare a PIA.

Join us for this 30-minute interactive webinar

LIVE Thursday July 5, 2018

12 Noon MDT

The replay is ready! Register for the FREE 30 minute Webinar recorded live!

Check your email for the link to the webinar!

You will also benefit from receiving notices about upcoming events on Practice Management Nuggets Webinars for Your Healthcare Practice and similar announcements.

We don't sell or share your personal information. Ever.

“When we know better, we can we do better.”

As an employer and health care provider, you are responsible to provide training to all of your employees about privacy awareness. Protect your organization and your patients. Equip your staff with the information they need to confidently and correctly handle personal health information.

I am constructively obsessive about privacy and confidentiality in the healthcare sector–and I think you should be, too! I designed this course to assist healthcare providers, clinic managers, practice managers, privacy officers and independent healthcare practice owners provide practical privacy awareness training that was easy to implement, consistent content, cost-effective and meaningful to your day-to-day business.

When each member of your independent healthcare practice completes this privacy awareness course, you will have clearer expectations and confidence that your team will maintain the privacy, confidentiality and security of your patient’s health information. Give your patients the gift of privacy. Improve your healthcare practice with privacy awareness education.

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach Information Managers Ltd.

#PracticeManagementNuggets, amendment, health care, healthcare, medical, Privacy Impact Assessment

Improve Your Healthcare Practice Security With Audit Logs

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Jean Eaton in Blog

Have you ever said…

“If only I had someone to ask!”

Each month, we discuss your questions about practice management, human resources issues, clinic management best practices, procedures, resources, practical privacy tips, and more in Practice Management Success membership.

In this Q&A, we're talking about: How to Improve Your Healthcare Practice Security With Audit Logs

When was the last time that you reviewed your access logs in your healthcare practice?

In our policies, procedures, risk assessments, and privacy impact assessment submissions, we indicate the reasonable safeguards that we expect to implement in our practices to protect the privacy and security of health information.

But policies and good intentions alone isn’t enough.

We also need to take action on our policies.

We have tools, like audit logs, available to us. Audit logs of our computer and software systems are available to monitor users who have accessed the system and the information contained in the systems.

Audit Log Image

Audit logs monitor and records the transactions of users’ activities in your computer network and your electronic medical record (EMR). It is an automated, real-time recording of who did what, and when, in your system.

For example, when a user logs in to your computer network at the beginning of the work day, the user name, date, time, and perhaps the workstation identifier is recorded in the audit log.

When the user logs into the EMR and creates, views, modifies, or prints from a specific patient record, each activity is recorded in the audit log. In this way, the audit log records both the activity of each user and, in each patient’s electronic medical record, who has accessed that patient’s health information.

You MUST implement, use, and monitor your audit logs

The regular review of the audit logs can demonstrate that the administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that we implement to protect the health information, our people, and our assets are working. Review of audit logs can also identify weaknesses so that corrective action can be taken to improve our privacy and security strategy.

For example, when you review your audit log, you may see that an employee (authorized user) is accessing the EMR after clinic hours. When you investigate, you find out that the billing clerk is doing the billing submission from home.

This might be OK in your healthcare practice (or not). But, now you know what is happening iin your clinic EMR after hours and you can take appropriate action.

Audit Logs Are Valuable Metadata

Taken from a different point of view, the audit log provides important additional information, or metadata, about the care and treatment of the patient. Knowing who created a clinic note, wrote a prescription, or reviewed a test result provides a story about the care that the patient received. For this reason, the audit log of the EMR is usually required by legislation to be maintained for the entire retention period of the patient’s record. This is generally 10 or more years for adult patients and longer if the patient was a child at the time that they were a patient or client in your practice.

How You Can Use Audit Logs to Improve the Security of Health Information In Your Practice

Snooping, or viewing someone’s health information for an unauthorized use, is not uncommon in healthcare. Snooping is always a breach of confidentiality and trust that our patients give to us.

Sometimes, snooping is because someone is concerned or curious about a family member or friend and don’t intend to do anything ‘bad’ with that information.

We also know that people will sometimes access information for malicious means – that is, using a ‘criminal intent’ or to be mean or disparaging to the individuals involved.

Say No to Snooping

When you regularly review your audit logs, you

Create a deterrent to all users to check something out ‘just this once, no one will know’.
Find potential threats or weaknesses in your current systems that you can improve to better mitigate your risks.

Custodians have an obligation to ensure reasonable safeguards to protect the privacy and security of health information. This means having appropriate policies and procedures in place and demonstrate and document that you have implemented your plans.

Action Steps That You Should Do Now

Use these points as a checklist to help you start using your audit logs to improve security in your healthcare practice.

Computer Network System Audit Log
- Ensure that your computer network system has audit logging enabled.
- Access and review your audit log. Don’t skip this step! Don’t assume that your audit logging is properly set up. You must discover how to access the audit log and record the procedure so that you can quickly access the audit log in the event that you have a privacy and security breach or routine security audit.
- Determine how long your audit log information is accessible or retained. Is it included in your routine backup files? Legislative retention requirements differ but you probably want to keep the audit logs accessible for six months or longer.
- Can you automate an audit log reporting tool to make it easier to review your audit logs regularly? Who in your healthcare practice is responsible to do this?

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) / Electronic Health Records (EHR) System Audit Log
- Most health information legislation and regulations now require EMR / EHR to include an integrated audit log / access log. Confirm that you have enabled your EMR / EHR audit log.
- Access and review your audit log. Don’t skip this step! Don’t assume that your audit logging is properly set up. You must discover how to access the audit log and record the procedure so that you can quickly access the audit log in the event that you have a privacy and security breach or routine security audit.
- Determine how long your audit log information is accessible or retained. Is it included in your routine backup files? Legislative retention requirements differ but you probably want to keep the audit logs accessible for as long as you retain the entire patient record – generally, 10 or more years years.
- Can you automate an audit log reporting tool to make it easier to review your audit logs regularly? Who in your healthcare practice is responsible to do this?
- User activity recorded in an audit log is often visible to subsequent EMR users when they access a patient record. In the course of routine workflow, users may observe and question inappropriate access to an individual patient record. Instruct your users to notify the clinic manager or privacy officer if the audit log indicates a suspicious activity.

Include the review of audit logs as part of your routine privacy and security monthly audit.

Click the link below to get your copy of the audit templates and the training video!

I Want the Audit Templates to Improve Privacy and Security!

Are you already a member of Practice Management Success?

The instructional video and Privacy and Security Monthly Audit Template is already in your membership!

Click the button now to go to the membership to access your resources.

Go to my Practice Management Success membership

When we know better, we can do better…

Jean Eaton is constructively obsessive about privacy, confidentiality, and security especially when it comes to the handling of personal health information. If you would like to discuss how I can help your practice, just send me an email. I am here to help you.

Jean L. Eaton
Your Practical Privacy Coach
INFORMATION MANAGERS

audit log, EMR, health care, healthcare practice, medical, reasonable safeguards

How the AACM Can Help You!

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Jean Eaton in PMN Replay

How The Alberta Association of Clinic Managers Can Help You

with Susan Le Doux and Katherine La Porte
Alberta Association of Clinic Managers

Recorded Live Thursday, April 5, 2018
Replay is available now for a limited time!

Click the >> arrow above to play the webinar!

In this Practice Management Nugget Webinar for Your Healthcare Practice, Susan Le Doux and Katherine La Porte of the Alberta Association of Clinic Managers (AACM) will discuss the 3 common problems AACM can help clinic managers solve.

Susan and Katherine will also reveal the benefits of being an AACM member including:

• access to on-line forum of clinic managers across Canada
• networking and education events in-person and on-line
• on-line resources
• mentoring with a seasoned clinic manager

If you don't have a speaker or headset, you can listen to the audio through your telephone. Dial +1(425) 440-5010 (To dial a local number click here http://instantteleseminar.com/local/?pin=386568 Pin Code 386568#)

Click Here to Download the Learning Resources Guide

Chat – ask your questions here.

Questions? Send an email to Jean.

Susan Le Doux

Featured Guests: Susan Le Doux

AACM President

Susan Le Doux is the current President of AACM and has been working as a Manager in the medical field for over 6 years and in management for over 20 years. It has been her privilege to be involved with the AACM since she joined the clinic in 2012, first as a member and then apart of the Executive for the past 4 years. She is a married mom of 6 and has lived in Calgary most of her life. Management has always been a part of who she is and she loves the challenge of getting a team to work together on accomplishing the same goals and moving forward as a unit.

Katherine La Porte

AACM Secretary

Katherine La Porte is the Secretary of AACM and has been working in Healthcare management for over 15 years both in community practice and as a part of a Primary Care Network. She has been a member of the AACM for the past 4 years, first as a member and now as the Secretary. She has found the AACM to be an excellent source of knowledge and beneficial for networking with fellow managers.

Katherine La Porte

#PracticeManagementNuggets, AACM, Alberta Association of Clinic Managers, clinic managers association, health care, healthcare, Leadership

Do You Want Checklists to Easily Grow Your Business?

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Jean Eaton in Blog

I love templates and checklists!

Good templates and checklists help me to save time, helps me to provide better service to my clients, and saves me money.

You can use templates in your healthcare business and clinic management, too.

As a business owner, we need to spend targeted time ON your business that is going to get the most value.

We need to solve business problems fast. We don't have time to spend 3 to 6 hours a day in a training program to learn how to do one simple aspect of our business.

We just want someone to show us how, give us the steps, and check the boxes as we do the next step in the process.

Taking action is so much more important than learning the theory of how something works!

My marketing mastermind coach, David Perdew, and his team over at NAMS (Novice to Advanced Marketing System) have developed something they call the MyNAMS Profit Planners and Business Accelerators.

Over the past 18 months, he's built this monthly system for his own members to help them get started implementing small systems that pay off big in their business.

Business Essentials Checklists

The topics include business essentials like:

WordPress starter kit,
Unlimited Blog Traffic,
launching your eCourse,
getting new leads,
driving more traffic,
and more!

His members love this because there's no extraneous nonsense in the training – it's all actionable and step-by-step.

Each month, the package includes:

√ A short Textbook or Special Report overview of the topic

√ A Workbook that guides you through the process

√ A Checklist to ensure you don't miss any steps

√ A Tools & Resources guide to help you start with the right tool

√ An Infographic highlighting the main points suitable for printing out and keeping close so you can always revisit the steps.

Not too much. Not too little. Just right!

And the price is right. You pay only $1 to start for the first week and can then choose either $9.99 per month or $77 per year. If you can manage it, the yearly option is a better deal.

The Profit Planner approach helps David's members, like me, get up to speed REALLY fast. And it's one of the reasons his Insiders members are doing so well.

Check them out here:

Check Out the Profit Planners Here

David is letting you try the MyNAMS Profit Planners and Business Accelerators for just $1 for 7 days.

BONUS! David has agreed to give you 5 more so you can get a really good taste of how valuable these planners and accelerators are.

Check them out here:

Check Out the Profit Planners Here

You're going to love this. But you have to hurry because $1 Trial can't last long.

Practice Management Success

I’ve used these planners to help me develop a new membership group, Practice Management Success – with tips, tools, templates and training to help you start, grow, fix, or maintain your healthcare practice!

Membership to Practice Management Success is open to all healthcare practices of any size – physicians, optometrists, audiologists, dentists, chiropractors, physiotherapists, nurse practitioners, and more!

My Bonus Offer

When you sign up to MyNAMS for only $1 to try out the first planner, just send me an email and let me know that you signed up. I will send you a coupon to also try out Practice Management Nuggets for 1 month free!

To your success!

Jean Eaton, Your Practice Management Mentor

If you purchase anything through a link in this email, you should assume that I have an affiliate relationship with the company providing the product or service that you purchase, and that I will be paid in some way. I recommend that you do your own independent research before purchasing anything.

business templates, health care, healthcare, My NAMS Profit Planners

Take Response-Ability for Your Leadership

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Jean Eaton in PMN Replay, PMN Stitcher

Take Response-Ability for Your Leadership

with Kathy Archer, Leadership Development Coach
Silver River Coaching

Recorded Live Thursday, March 1, 2018

Kathy Archer of Silver River Coaching is our guest expert on Practice Management Nuggets Webinars for Your Healthcare Practice. Kathy will share her tips and tools with you so that you can start your journey to restore your lost confidence and move from surviving to thriving in both leadership and life.

Many women working in a small practice clinic have leadership roles thrust upon them without clear expectations or support. We don’t all naturally grow into our leadership roles as quickly as situations demand.

Join the webinar with Kathy, and leave the webinar with a renewed hope that you can feel in control of your leadership experience.

Click the >> arrow to play the video replay!

If you don't have a speaker or headset, you can listen to the audio through your telephone. Dial +1(425) 440-5010 Pin Code 386568# (long distance charges may apply)

Download the Learning Resources Guide

Chat – ask your questions here.

Questions? Send an email to Jean.

Kathy Archer

Featured Guest: Kathy Archer
Leaders often hit a point where they find themselves in over their heads and wondering if they have what it takes to lead. Leadership Development Coach Kathy Archer offers online courses and leadership coaching sessions where she teaches leaders the inner and outer tools to restore their lost confidence so they can move from surviving to thriving in both leadership and life. Kathy Archer is also the author of the Amazon Best Seller, Mastering Confidence Discover Your Leadership Potential by Awakening Your Inner Guidance System.

#PracticeManagementNuggets, confidence, health care, healthcare, Leadership, Powerful Play Experiences, women leaders

Shared Health Record Project Includes Community Health Providers

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Jean Eaton in Blog, Guest Post

Are you a Community Healthcare Provider in Alberta?

The Alberta Netcare project, the provincial electronic health record (EHR), has been in development since 1999. The EHR is a secure and confidential electronic system of Alberta patient health information. The Shared Health Record Project is one of the latest Netcare initiatives.

One of the largest source of patient health information resides with community healthcare providers.

The Shared Health Record Project intends to provide the solution to integrate information from a healthcare providers' office based electronic medical record (EMR) into the provincial EHR to improve the communication between healthcare providers to better provide continuing care and treatment to the patient.

If you are a healthcare provider who believes that secure access to more patient health information can improve health outcomes, this article is for you!

In this guest author post, Lyuba Fleysher, Program Director, ConnectCare, provides an update of the Shared Health Record Project.

The primary goal of the Shared Health Record (SHR) Project is to establish a foundation for sharing clinical information between physician office electronic medical records (EMRs) and the Alberta Netcare EHR repositories managed by Alberta Health Services (AHS). The purpose of this integration is to support continuity of care and clinical decision-making.

It is well acknowledged that 70 to 80% of health services are delivered in community settings – outside of AHS programs and services. It was expected that provincial availability of information captured within physician office EMRs would support continuity of care and enhance patient safety by providing a more complete electronic health record (EHR).

The primary focus of SHR is on enabling system-to-system integration to access to information held in the Netcare EHR repositories managed by AHS and currently only available via the Netcare Portal.

Note this integration does not replace eDelivery of reports delivered to physicians who are named on the report.

The SHR implementation will:

Enable authorized users to search for, view, and download clinical documents (e.g. discharge summaries, consult reports, diagnostic imaging reports) and encounters via system-to-system messaging.
Include capabilities to automatically propagate report updates to providers who had downloaded and replicated copies of reports in their EMR (or paper chart) or requested receiving updates. The propagation of updates is to eliminate potential impact to patient safety of using incorrect or out-of-date information for clinical decision making.
Honor the patient’s expressed wishes for a Global Person-Level Mask (GPLM) and require users to provide a reason for unmasking the record if they wish to access a masked record.

The scope of the project includes implementation with a limited production rollout (LPR) of clinics that use the Alberta Qualified Services Provider (QSP) vendor – Microquest. However the SHR interface specifications will become an Alberta HISCA standard and be available for implementation with non-QSP (Alberta Qualified Services Provider) EMR vendors or other applications (e.g. Personal Health Portal).

The Shared Health Record (SHR) project is a key component of the Alberta Netcare Electronic Health Record (EHR). The SHR project is an initiative to further develop the value and completeness of the information shared within the provincial Netcare EHR, and enables further access to health information to support clinical decision making at the point of care.

The success of the Netcare EHR has been achieved by enabling access to demographic information, drug information, lab test result data, diagnostic imaging and other report information to physicians, pharmacists, hospitals, home care, and other health care professionals across the province. The goal of the next phase of the development of Netcare, as defined within the “Alberta Provincial Healthcare IM/IT Strategic Plan 2009-2015” , is to share relevant clinical information in addition to the information domains presently available within Netcare.

SHR is a concept that was developed by Canada Health Infoway. The Shared Health Record (SHR) is a mechanism for sharing person-specific clinically-relevant data not held in other domain repositories (e.g. DI, Lab, and Drug). The SHR is intended to hold a copy of subsets of information captured in the point of service (PoS) applications and should focus only on clinically relevant data appropriate for sharing. The following are types of information that Infoway suggests maybe included:

Basic Encounter Information
Referral Orders and Referral Notes
Encounter Summaries
Clinical Observations
Problems/Conditions/Diagnosis
Care Plans
Care Protocols
Health Status indicators

The SHR completed extensive consultation with stakeholders and established the following consensus:

The SHR should initially focus on Encounters, Reports, Immunizations/Adverse Reactions, Care Composition Profiles, Screenings and Alerts.
Both data integrity (accredited source, accuracy, timeliness) and presentation (the manner in which information is accessed from within the EHR) are paramount.
Conceptually, the SHR project should endeavor to allow the EHR to act as a “summary profile” which guides and points to client information supplied, managed and accredited by other distributed sources. This profile may be based on Client/Provider/Site Encounters.

Guest Author: Lyuba Fleysher, Program Director, ConnectCare, Alberta Netcare

For more information about the Shared Health Record, see: www.albertanetcare.ca/SharedHealthRecord.htm and www.ahs.ca/connectcare .

If you are using an EMR, contact your EMR representative to discover how the SHR integrates into your EMR.

Alberta, Alberta Netcare, Canada Health Infoway, health care, healthcare, shared health record

You Will Be FINED $50,000 if You Don't Do This!

Not a member of Practice Management Success, yet?

What You Should Do Now

Additional Resources

When we know better, we can do better…

In this Q&A, we're talking about:

Can you use text messaging with patients?

What is the Purpose for Texting?

Texting from the Patient to the Clinic

What Are the Risks?

Workflow When You Receive Text Messages from the Patient

Texting From the Clinic to the Patient

Authorization

Alternate Technology Solutions

Privacy Impact Assessment

When we know better, we can do better…

Mandatory Privacy Breach Reporting is Coming to Alberta!

You need to know how mandatory privacy breach reporting will affect you!

Join us for this Free webinar

Recorded LIVE Thursday July 26, 2018

Register for the FREE Live Webinar Replay!

Check your email for the link to the webinar!

“When we know better, we can we do better.”

Click To Play

Protect Your Practice, Your Assets, and Your Patients with Privacy Impact Assessments – A Complete Step-by-Step Course

“When we know better, we can we do better.”

Join us for this 30-minute interactive webinar

12 Noon MDT

The replay is ready! Register for the FREE 30 minute Webinar recorded live!

Check your email for the link to the webinar!

“When we know better, we can we do better.”

In this Q&A, we're talking about: How to Improve Your Healthcare Practice Security With Audit Logs

When was the last time that you reviewed your access logs in your healthcare practice?

You MUST implement, use, and monitor your audit logs

Audit Logs Are Valuable Metadata

How You Can Use Audit Logs to Improve the Security of Health Information In Your Practice

Action Steps That You Should Do Now

Click the link below to get your copy of the audit templates and the training video!

Are you already a member of Practice Management Success?

When we know better, we can do better…

How The Alberta Association of Clinic Managers Can Help You

Featured Guests: Susan Le Doux

AACM President

Katherine La Porte

AACM Secretary

You can use templates in your healthcare business and clinic management, too.

Taking action is so much more important than learning the theory of how something works!

Business Essentials Checklists

Practice Management Success

Take Response-Ability for Your Leadership

Are you a Community Healthcare Provider in Alberta?