You know times have changed when your 10-year-old vlogs to thousands of his followers from his cell phone, or twentysomethings buy each other drinks via some mobile app, without ever talking to a bartender.
Your version of these capacities means no more x-ray hunting or prescribing a patient’s medication without ever picking up a pen. And we’re sure you’ve considered what you do and don’t like about EHRs or cloud computing, but have you considered the ups and downs of the How Technology behind it all?
Downed Internet Connections
Internet connections will inevitably drop. It seems simple, even, but countless practices may not know how to troubleshoot a downed Internet connection.
First, restart your computer and router, and other relevant hardware. Once you do so, wait a few minutes before rebooting. If this doesn’t do the trick, try isolating the network problem – could be the access point if you’re running WiFi across the office.
If you’re still having issues, you may be dealing with a virus or malware infection. And there’s always customer service.
If things get really mucky, you can be daring and try following the network path, but this isn’t for the casual, faint-of-heart computer user. For more information on this process, follow this link.
Backing Up Your Connection
Internet connections are not inherently backed up – that’s something you have to do yourself. What if you need something in your wiring closet and you trip on a wire, sending your router cascading towards the floor?
Some practices handle this problem with backup Internet service providers (ISP). First, you purchase your service through your local cable company, and a simple commercial router – Dlink, Linksys – should be enough to get all your computers churning.
A second connection could be something like a DSL router, which is the solution at Jarrell Family Medicine. Or better yet, set up a secondary Internet connection and connect both to a second router and give both routers the same local network setup. So, if you have an outage, you can turn one router off and turn on the other.
Even a third backup can be implemented – some cell phones may be used as hotspots, which can be rather handy in extreme circumstances.
Staying Secure
Is your practice secure against electronic data risks? Not all risks are related to stolen medical records from an EHR – some are as simple as the “Love Bug” viruses that haunted many of us for a decade. Your practice must evaluate its exposure to digital foul play if it hasn’t already.
Internal Internet access policies include password and other authentication measures like single sign on (SSO), as well as biometrics – voice recognition or fingerprint detection. External methods of protection include encryption, digital signatures, and firewalls.
Furthermore, the HIPAA Security Rule shouldn’t just be seen as something to worry about it but a guideline, which also forces you to maintain your computer systems in good shape and management controls over your system’s usage.
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