Security measures in healthcare

For ethical, legal, and business reasons, the security of health care data must be a top priority in health care organizations. HIPAA, for example, requires that health care organizations safeguard patient data, and there are serious consequences for breaches of privacy. Yet organizations have many types of sensitive clinical or administrative information they need to protect. To make their systems secure, health care organizations put in place policies as well as technical safeguards such as encryption and passwords. There can be a tradeoff, however, between system security and ease of use by health care providers.

Prepare for this Application Assignment as follows: 

• Select a type of health care organization, such as an outpatient clinic, nursing home, or hospital, and a specific department or function in this setting, such as a nursing unit, radiology department, or admissions, that would make use of sensitive health data.Bring to mind specific ways in which these data might be improperly accessed, lost, stolen, and so on.
• Review this week’s Learning Resources, and conduct online research, as needed, to clarify for yourself the ramifications for individuals and organizations of security breaches in this department, and the solutions that have been devised to protect these data. In what ways might these security measures interfere with the staff’s ease of use of the system? Consider how best to balance these competing interests of data security and convenience for staff.

Then write a 2- to 3-page paper that addresses the following:

• Describe key challenges for your selected health care department in ensuring that its sensitive data are secure. Illustrate with specific examples, and address not only technological issues but also human factors involved in ensuring its system security.
• What are some implications of security breaches of its health care data? Who might be impacted and how?
• Summarize security measures that might be taken as well as their potential impact on the staff’s ease of use of the information system.
• Explain what you believe is the appropriate balance between data security and ease of use.

Policy Memo/Brief
The purpose of this assignment is to provide students with the opportunity to practice writing policy
memos/briefs, which will be a useful skill in their international policy management career.
What is a policy memo/brief?
A policy memo/brief is a short document that outlines an issue or problem and presents
recommendations based on evidence for a non-specialized audience, such as key decision-makers,
NGOs, journalists, etc. It provides policy advice and is meant to be informative and persuasive.
Organization of your policy memo/brief
While in your professional careers policy memos might vary in their organization, below is a common
organizational flow for policy briefs, and one that you must use in these two courses.
• Title: Your title should clearly communicate your topic and may include the position of the
writer on the issue. A good title should grab the attention of the reader. (5 points)
• Introductory Paragraph/Executive Summary: Your memo/brief should include a short
introductory paragraph that summarizes the problem you are addressing in the memo. In
addition, the summary should briefly and clearly state the primary findings and
recommendations of the memo. (10 points)
• Description of the Problem and Reasons for Action: You will provide a brief overview of the
policy that needs to be addressed and why it is important to do something different than
current policy. Basically – what is the problem and why do we need to fix it? In this section,
students should discuss key measures that illustrate the problem and failures of current or past
policies. For example, current literacy levels and trends might be used to demonstrate the lack
of effective current policies. Data and information are important here. You should specifically
analyze the strengths and weakness of existing policy – be sure to include both! Do not just
present your data, but rather discuss the implications or significant findings based on the data.
(20 points)
• Proposed Policy Alternatives: What are some potential alternatives to the current policy based
on your research? Specifically, you should discuss the process through which each proposed
alternative policy might fix the problems with the current policy. You should include a minimum
of two potential policy alternatives. (10 points)
• Analyzing Policy Alternatives and Making a Policy Recommendation: In this section, you will
evaluate and analyze the proposed policy alternatives you discussed in the previous section and
ultimately make a recommendation on the best course of action. You should discuss the
strengths and weaknesses of each policy alternative and clearly state the criteria are you using
to evaluate these options. Weigh the costs and benefits of various options (based on these
criteria), building an argument for the “best” recommendation. You should support your
assertions with relevant data and avoid generalizations. You should also be sure to address
potential counterarguments and rebuttals to your findings and ultimate recommendation. The
key object of this section is to ultimately create a compelling argument for the option that you
have chosen as a recommendation from the presented alternatives. (25 points)
• Implementing Policy Recommendation: Clearly state how your policy recommendations should
be implemented and a timeframe for implementation. Be sure to provide specific and detailed
steps that need to be followed for the implementation of this policy; this requires you to
consider the key actors (agencies, leaders, executives, etc.) involved in the implementation.
Further, you should discuss the potential (intended or unintended) impact, both positive and
negative, of these recommendations on key constituents. (20 points)
• Conclusion: Provide a succinct and clear conclusion. Remind the reader of the “big picture” and
overall goal of your policy recommendations – answering the “so what?” question. In other
words, why is your proposed alternative better than the current policy and status quo? Why is it
important to make this change and why is the proposed timeframe appropriate and necessary?
(10 points)
Format of your policy memo/brief
While the length of policy memos/briefs may vary, since you are still acquiring the ability to write
succinctly, for the purpose of these classes your policy memos should be 2-3 pages in length (single
spaced). In addition, policy memos should be written with the reader in mind. They should be easy to
read and it should be easy to find important information. You may consider bold or italicized fonts,
clearly defined subsections, and/or bullets and lists to help the reader quickly and easily find key
information.
Additional Grading Information
This is a formal writing assignment and you are expected to write clearly and for a professional
audience. such, clarity and organization of writing, use of appropriate grammar, spelling, and
appropriate word choice and usage will be considered when grading your memos. Memos with such
mistakes may be penalized up to 10 points, depending on the severity of the problems.

Compose a brief and focused paper which explains and describes your healthcare issue/topic from a scientific and/or mathematical/analytical perspective of inquiry. Your instructor will guide you through the choices you have for this inquiry, including options and strategies for combining the perspectives.

Your paper must be 5 pages in length and reference 4-6 scholarly, peer-reviewed resources. Be sure to follow APA formatting standards (spacing, font, headers, titles, abstracts, page numbering, etc.) as you demonstrate informative, explanatory, descriptive writing. Use the provided template

.

• Address your general topic by forming and answering two levels of research questions, developed to provide specific and detailed inquiry, discovery and understanding: 
  • Choose a “Level 1 Research Question/ Writing Prompt” from either or both of the lists below to answer in the paper.
  • Compose a “Level 2 Research Question/ Writing Prompt” that provides detail, specificity, and focus to your inquiry, research and writing**.
• State your research questions in the introduction of your paper.
• Form the body of your paper by answering each research question, using references to the resources found in your research.
• Review the process and the resulting understandings in the conclusion of the paper (briefly review the issues, research questions, answers, and insights.)

Level 1 Research Questions/Writing Prompts
SCIENTIFIC Perspective of Inquiry
What are the anatomical, physiological, pathological, or epidemiological issues?
Which body systems are affected?
What happens at the cellular or genetic level?
Which chemical or biological issues are most important?
Level 1 Research Questions/Writing Prompts
MATHEMATICAL/ANALYTICAL Perspective of Inquiry
What are the economical issues involved?
Which economic theories or approaches best explain the issue?
What are the statistical facts related to the issue?
Which statistical processes used to study the issue provide for the best explanation or understanding of the issue?

Refer to the rubric for evaluation details and to assist in preparing the paper.

Due: Submit by 11:59 pm (Pacific time) the evening before the Week 4 onsite class
Points: 100

**Notes about research questions and team meetings:

• Discuss and share your research questions with your teammates during your team meetings to ensure that each team member is addressing uniquely specific questions and details about your topic.
• If two or more team members use the same Level 1 Research Question, the Level 2 Research Question composed by those team members must be demonstrably different (confirmed through your weekly interactions in online and in-class team meetings.)