FairWarning®, the global leader in patient privacy monitoring, has contributed to Intellect's response to the government's plans for a paperless NHS. In its report 'Digitising the NHS by 2018', the UK's technology association provides its views on achieving this important challenge.
FairWarning® was keen to align itself with Intellect's paper as it shares the vision that better patient care can be achieved through a paperless NHS, with privacy and respect for the patient as its foundation.
Tim Dunn, Executive vice president, FairWarning® commented: "We believe that the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) provides the NHS with its only chance to fundamentally reduce the cost structure in which services are provided, while improving care for patients and helping to tackle the challenge of an ageing population and increasing incidence of long term conditions."
Based on its extensive experience in the US and Europe where it has supported numerous healthcare providers with the implementation of electronic healthcare, FairWarning® believes the NHS could take further action to better protect patient privacy. It urges the health service to build in specific recommendations into its by-laws to ensure the success of a paperless NHS and preserve trust in digital healthcare.
A summary of key recommendations include:
- Making healthcare providers fully accountable for breach disclosure to patients and breach notification to the ICO.
- Mandating trusts to build patient privacy into NHS IT systems by enforcing the mandatory use of audit trails across all healthcare applications.
- The introduction of robust standards for audit trails.
- Reinforcing a culture of privacy in the NHS through education and awareness.
About FairWarning
FairWarning® is the inventor and global leader in software solutions which monitor and protect patient privacy in electronic health records, enabling healthcare providers and health information exchanges to confidentially connect physicians, clinics, patients and affiliates. FairWarning®'s privacy auditing solutions are compatible with healthcare applications from every major vendor, and available as either on-premise or software-as-a-service, with managed services available to complement existing resources. Customers consider FairWarning® privacy auditing solutions essential for compliance with healthcare privacy regulations such as ARRA HITECH privacy and meaningful use criteria, HIPAA, EU Data Protection, UK Freedom of Information Act, California SB 541 and AB 211, Texas HB 300, and Canadian provincial healthcare privacy law.