HIPAA Security Rule

The HIPAA privacy rule aims to guard protected health information (PHI), while the Security Rule protects a subsection of information covered by the Privacy Rule. This subsection is all individually distinguishable health information a covered entity “produces, receives, maintains, or sends in electronic form.” This information is called “electronic protected health information” (e-PHI). The Security Rule does not apply to PHI communicated orally or in writing.

To comply with the HIPAA Security Rule, all covered entities must do the following:

• Certify the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all electronic protected health information,
• Detect and safeguard against anticipated threats to the security of the information,
• Protect against impermissible uses or disclosures of information, and
• Certify compliance by their workforce.

Your healthcare practice should depend on the best judgment and professional ethics when considering requests for permission to use and disclose PHI. The HHS Office for Civil Rights enforces HIPAA rules, and all complaints should be reported to that office. HIPAA violations may result in civil monetary or criminal penalties. For more information, visit the Department of Health and Human Services HIPAA website at https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/index.html[1]

Resident Specific Reports

Caring for a resident population includes the management and tracking of hundreds of resident specific details. Data management and reporting are what SNO does best. With SNO you can easily monitor and identify significant weight changes occurring within one week or up to one year. SNO has a report for every resident list you require including Residents on Tube Feeding, Fortified Foods, Thickened Liquids, and Fluid Restrictions. SNO can print resident specific menus that are updated for the residents’ specific allergies, dislikes, special requests, portion size changes, Drug-Nutrient Interactions, and also print a comprehensive nutrient analysis of this menu.

Should a catastrophic event occur within our customers’ system(s,) their system, proprietary institution information and patient data are protected through SNO’s cloud architecture. SNO’s multifaceted security design provides a strong barrier to outside infiltration and malicious intrusion, data hacking and cybercrime and all access is limited to encrypted channels through a Virtual Private Network (VPN.)

Site-specific data is kept at SNO’s Secure Data Centers and not at individual customer sites, which oftentimes cannot provide the same level of physical protection as our data centers. However, individual sites have the ability to save copies of daily production reports, including patient information, traycards, etc., in Portable Document Format (PDF) formats on site. We train customers to implement this layer of repetition for their additional security and protection. Finally, SNO’s employees and contractors only discuss a patient’s PHI with the customer’s facility for the purpose of troubleshooting problems and all test data used by SNO is erased to eliminate any identifiable patient information.