BHA-FPX 4020: Health Care Administration Capstone Project

Health Care Professional Feedback
Health Problem and Rationale

Healthcare data breaches reveal a troubling trend in the industry. The incidents have an impact on patients, organizations, and professionals at alarming rates despite efforts to adopt and upgrade data security solutions. According to Bohn and Schiereck (2022), the demand for data-driven clinical practices requires hospitals to keep pace with the influx of sophisticated threats. The healthcare sector reported 337 data breaches in the first half of 2022 (McKneon, 2022). Similarly, there were over 19 million records implicated in healthcare data breaches within the first six months of 2022.

The average cost of a breach is about $10.1 million, which reveals the extent of the problem and its implications on the future of health care (McKneon, 2022). The problem highlights the need for robust administrative, physical, and technical programs to identify and intercept risks. Boh and Schiereck (2022) indicated that current and former employees trigger increased breaches due to unauthorized access to databases and sharing of sensitive information with third parties. The targeted files contain details of patients’ identification, emails, appointment information, social security number, health insurance, billing information, and addresses (Lee & Choi, 2021). Failure to respond to incidents has serious implications on reputation, financial stability, and patient satisfaction. Enhancing security and monitoring capabilities is a strategic priority appropriate for the organization’s commitment to maintaining a superior competitive advantage.

Assessing and Measuring Issues for Quality Improvement

The measures of health data breaches include frequency of occurrence, the common types in terms of percentages, and cost to patients and the organization. The metrics guide organizations to complete a risk assessment to understand the type of data affected, the number of people affected, and the harm caused by the breach (Argaw et al., 2020). The benchmarks for measuring performance include hiring adequate skilled IT security professionals, enhanced employee responsibility and accountability when handling patient information, and significant investment in technologies such as firewalls to mitigate data breaches. The goal is to ensure that the organization has enough resources to identify and resolve data breaches involving unauthorized access, loss, and theft of patient data (Lee & Choi, 2021). Assessment includes discovering processes necessary to prevent an incident from happening in the future. The team in charge also considers the risk to a firm’s reputation and financial losses.

A high-risk incident provides insights into the adverse impacts of data breaches based on the magnitude of losses and business disruptions. Abouelmehdi et al. (2018) highlighted the need for organizations to assess and measure data breaches in terms of the number of incidents and the percentage of the most common breaches. According to the authors, data-driven clinical practices improve patient care flow and reduce costs. However, organizations become vulnerable to ransomware and other attacks. Unauthorized access and disclosure is the most common type of breach with 40% of the reported incidents. Al-Muhtadi et al. (2019) assessed breaches based on the number of personal devices used in the clinical environment and the frequency of incidents. The authors also remind organizations to focus on the type of information such as medical records, diagnosis, and medical history that are more vulnerable to unauthorized access and disclosure.