Cloud Computing Paper
Lifelove
hippa.docxIntroduction
Cloud computing has been used successfully to bring and share information from different cities, states and countries. Today, collaboration is not relegated to being the same room as has been in the past. Information can be created in one place, edited in another and then shared to all faster than ever. When it come to the world of business, especially the medical field, being able to share a user or patient’s records can be vital in security, verification of information and possibly save a life.
One of the issues with the cloud is the fact of storing so much information, that it is tough going through it or even the concern of it being misplaced. Saving locally is something that we have done for years and backing up to an external drive was something that we had to learn. We will be implementing that, but this time in the idea of a cloud network. This would make it easier to find records and still use the security of cloud computing.
To query a record is to look it up by a specific identifier, usually by a date of birth or social security number. Going through a database set on the cloud would be a a little bit time consuming for a hospital network. Especially if there are several other places
accessing that same database. We will go over the use of a local network storage in the idea of accessing patient information for identification and updating. We will explain how to implement this idea in large hospital networks to a private practice with one to four doctors in an office.
What is HIPAA
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act(HIPAA) addresses the use and disclosure of individuals’ health information, protected health information, by any organizations which is subject to the Privacy Rule as well as individuals’ privacy rights which help to understand and control how their information is used. The Privacy Rule is enforced by the Office of Civil Rights(OCR), who has the responsibility for implementing and enforcing the Privacy Rule with respect to voluntary compliance activities and civil money penalties. One of the major goals of the Privacy Rule is to make sure all of the health information given by individuals is properly protected while allowing the information that is needed to flow and promote high quality health care. The privacy rule applies to any healthcare provider as well as health plans and clearinghouses who transmits information through electronic form through the adopted standards under HIPAA.
Solution
Most companies use cloud services to provide support for programs as well s saving information throughout their network. Due to all the records being saved on an offsite server, searching will take much longer, as throughput traffic of programs and files are taking up network bandwidth. Our solution is twofold: save patient records onto hospital network servers and backup to cloud storage solutions in intervals throughout the day or week, depending on site. The information that can be saved will depend on certain situations: what information is needed, usually the patient's name and primary information as well as last visit and emergency information that the administration would need. This information would connect to the rest of the records located on the cloud services. In a hospital setting, your hospital network will only have the most important information ready for checkups and followups. As for scheduled appointments, the whole file will be downloaded for you doctor beforehand, freeing up the network for programs to be used. This will also make it easier to convert an older network with cloud services without adding more physical things like network cables, unless needed. This will also help when the patient visits a different branch of that hospital network as they will be accessing that information from their server. Now, if they go to another hospital outside of their current hospital network or even a walk in clinic, they will be able to access your records from the cloud services and can be downloaded onto their server. This can replace having information faxed form one site to another. Saving time and being green by saving paper.
