In a time when so much attention is focused on issues such as cyber security and the dangers posed from evolving technology, it's easy to forget the HIPAA basics, such as the need for workforce members not to gossip or chitchat about patients with other staff members or people in the community.
One task that almost every healthcare organization is going to have to tackle to comply with the HIPAA omnibus final rule is amending its Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP).
If many acute care hospitals struggle to protect patient privacy, long-term care organizations face their own challenges in ensuring the privacy of residents who live in their nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
Q. A long-term care facility has deployed laptops that connect to a file server and are password protected. The laptops are not used to store PHI or other confidential data and are not removed from the facility. Do the laptop hard drives need to be encrypted?
