Choosing a Secure Healthcare Technology Vendor
Posted on Tuesday, July 18, 2023
As current events have shown us all, choosing a secure healthcare technology vendor is absolutely crucial for hospitals for a variety of reasons. Most importantly:
1. Protection of Sensitive Data: Hospitals handle vast amounts of sensitive patient data (PHI), including names, addresses, health records, insurance information, and financial data. This data is often shared with vendors who provide various services to the hospital. If these vendors are not secure, there's a risk of this data being breached, leading to a violation of privacy rights and potential harm to patients.
2. Regulatory Compliance: Laws and regulations such as HIPAA in the United States require healthcare providers to protect patient data. Through BAA’s this obligation extends to vendors who handle this PHI data. If a vendor is not secure, the hospital could be found in violation of these regulations, leading to fines and other penalties.
3. Reputation: If a vendor suffers a data breach and patient information is compromised, it can damage the hospital's reputation. This can lead to a loss of trust among patients and the broader community, and potentially impact the hospital's bottom line.
4. Business Continuity: Vendors often provide critical services and supplies to hospitals. If a vendor is attacked and their systems are disrupted, it could impact the hospital's ability to provide care. For example, a cyberattack on a vendor who provides workflow solutions could disrupt business office revenue, impacting the hospital’s revenue cycle.
5. Third-Party Risk Management: In the realm of information security, the risk that a vendor poses to a health system is called third-party risk. These risks aren't fully under the hospital's control, so they need to ensure that the vendors have adequate security measures in place. Choosing a vendor that takes Information Security seriously is essential.
Choosing a Secure Healthcare Technology Vendor
In the face of these risks, hospitals need to have a robust vendor security management process in place. This must include choosing vendors that perform third-party security audits on their own systems and who hold themselves to higher standards.
HealthWare Systems is raising the bar when it comes to vendor security. We third-party validate our security posture with three separate independent companies: I.S. Partners, LLC, SecurityScorecard, and Qualys.
Through the audit conducted by I.S. Partners, LLC, we are SOC 2 Type I certified and on track for SOC 2 Type II certification by the end of the third quarter of 2023. We are committed to maintaining our A rating with SecurityScorecard and undergo continuous vulnerability assessments by Qualys.
When you choose HealthWare Systems, you choose security. For more information on our cybersecurity protocols or our secure intelligent automation solutions for healthcare, contact us today.
