Neal Singh explains why healthcare organizations are turning to this strategy

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The results of a patient experience survey highlighted the need for healthcare providers to offer convenient communication options and user-friendly healthcare technology to improve experience and satisfaction.

The survey was conducted by Updox, a complete healthcare communication platform for in-person and virtual care. It was conducted online from August 31 to September 2, 2021, with responses from 2076 US adults ages 18 and older.

According to the survey, 53% of respondents said they would prefer to update or provide information such as health conditions, new prescriptions, or test results, digitally using online forms that can be accessed securely by phone, email, or patient portal.

In addition, 55% said convenient communications were among the most important factors when it comes to a good patient experience. User-friendly technology, such as an easy-to-use health portal or telehealth app, was the second-most important factor (51%), followed by secure information sharing (50%), and increased health safety (47%).

It’s clear that COVID-19 has impacted and even accelerated the expectations and preferences of patients and the ways they prefer to engage with and receive care from their healthcare provider,” Zach Zettler, president of Updox, said in a statement. “It is critical for practices to adjust to these needs to better connect with patients where they are - on their phones. When it comes to technology solutions that consumers believe are important for a healthcare provider to offer, it’s all digital.”

Common technology solutions patients expect to be offered included:

Patient reminders by phone call, email or text (65%)

However, 3% said no new technology solutions were important for healthcare providers to offer to patients.

The survey also evaluated new expectations of healthcare providers as a result of the pandemic. Requiring that masks be worn by both patients and providers during in-office visits was most expected (58%) followed by socially distanced waiting rooms (52%) and an option for online paperwork (42%). Only 41% and 39% expected telehealth appointment option and communications conducted virtually, respectively. Furthermore, 12% said their expectations of healthcare providers hadn’t changed as a result of the pandemic.

“Communication can truly be a huge barrier in getting healthcare services, which is why it’s so important for today’s providers to focus first on establishing relationships,” said Sherie Garrison, RN, Luke Project 52 Clinic. “At my clinic, Updox really is the glue we use to build trust with our patients. Texting with them isn’t always medically related — it’s a way to show we care about them, and we’re connected to them.”

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Patients expect more convenient communication options and user-friendly technology from healthcare providers now.

Patients Expect Providers to Offer Convenient Communication, User-Friendly Technologies

Telehealth isn't the only enduring technology that was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic; artificial intelligence (AI) was being used more than ever across Moffitt Cancer Center, said Edmondo Robinson, MD, MBA, MS, FACP, senior vice president and chief digital officer at Moffitt Cancer Center.

What new technologies or services did Moffitt implement during the pandemic that you think have good applications after the pandemic is under control?

A couple of things that come to mind in terms of response to the pandemic in order to make sure that we were still driving our mission to prevent and cure cancer. So one — and this is common, you hear this theme for everyone who responds to the pandemic — which is telehealth, telehealth, telehealth. Right? And so, you know, we pivoted very quickly. We had a 7,500% increase in our telehealth visits. That's come down since the height of the pandemic, but not all the way. So, there's some middle ground in there between where we were before, and where we were at the height of the pandemic. You know, virtual visits are just gonna be a standard channel through which to deliver care. 

And so you know, that there's a whole suite of activity that has to go with that. All the workflows, you know, the technical components, as well as just making sure patients are ready for that. There's a concept of digital health, in terms of literacy, right? So we think about literacy, and then there's health literacy, and then there's digital health literacy, right? And so, we have to actually pay attention to that. 

But in parallel to really, one, getting getting a lot of our employees to work from home, and then doing the virtual visits, something else that happened in parallel and actually continued to accelerate during the pandemic is the leveraging of artificial intelligence throughout the enterprise, though. So, everywhere from predictions of outcomes, like sepsis, to driving our business operations, leveraging robotic process automation, for example, but layering in artificial intelligence so that with AI, the bots are  not just automating, the AI is finding the next opportunity to automate or the AI is fixing the bot if it breaks on its own. Those kinds of concepts.

So again, leveraging AI everywhere from business operations to clinical operations, is another thing that we actually accelerated during the pandemic.

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Dr. Edmondo Robinson Highlights the Growing Use of AI

Bryan Dickerson serves as the senior director of healthcare workforce solutions at Hospital IQ. Bryan has 30 years of experience working in healthcare, specifically with product management, customer experience, and software solutions. At Hospital IQ, Bryan applies his expertise to create the tech solutions that solve the challenges hospital leaders and administrators face with scheduling and staffing.

Staffing shortages and burnout were familiar to hospitals and health systems pre-pandemic but were dramatically exacerbated by COVID-19. The pandemic solidified the need for hospitals to be able to allocate staff and resources when and where they are needed most. The ongoing COVID-19 surges reinforced the value of investing in long-term, sustainable staffing solutions that provide the visibility hospitals and health systems need to optimize their valuable staffing resources.

Many hospitals and health systems are still relying on manual, disparate staffing strategies and technology which results in inefficient, crisis-minded staffing choices. With 62% of hospitals reporting a nurse vacancy rate higher than 7.5%, according to a 

, health systems cannot afford to ignore the need for staffing and retention improvement. The adoption of a more effective staffing model must be top-of-mind for hospital leaders heading into 2022 and beyond.

The key to strategic, effective, painless staffing revolves around achieving enterprise-level transparency and adopting a centralized approach. Centralized staffing, by definition, is a holistic, enterprise-wide approach that fully leverages all staffing resources across the entire organization. Unit leaders and the central staffing office (CSO) need the ability to view staffing at the regional, facility, and service line levels — and various combinations of all three. With these tailored views of current and future staffing needs and gaps, they can determine how staff resources can be fully leveraged. For example, the staffing team can look at critical care staffing needs across hospitals within a certain geographic proximity to determine proactively how intensive care unit staff can be shared effectively by facilities within that region.

While many hospitals still struggle with siloed or unit-based staffing processes, outdated methods of communication, and limited data-driven insights, more and more organizations are adopting the technologies and processes that deliver the required level of transparency. By strategically leveraging their own internal data, for example, and adopting a centralized staffing model, hospitals can gain cross-unit visibility into staffing details and utilize predictive analytics to staff smarter. This not only improves hospital operations and efficiency, but also ensures high quality care for patients, and helps reduce factors contributing to staff burnout.

The Value of Increased Insight for Staffing Leaders

Full transparency across the enterprise is critical when trying to staff effectively. In order to successfully plan for future staffing needs — which eventually become current needs — staffing offices are turning to the utilization of predictive data analytics.

With the application of predictive analytics, CSOs gain accurate, specific insights into future staffing needs across the enterprise, in addition to what it will require to meet those needs with available staff. They are also receiving actionable recommendations about how to best address projected gaps before any resulting problems arise. This foresight reduces the need for desperate, reactive last-minute staffing measures and drives smarter operations. Unit leaders can now achieve more intelligent resource allocation, deliver higher quality of care, and gain valuable time back to spend with their patients; all because of efficient scheduling and improved open shift management from the CSO.

Enterprise-wide, enhanced insight into operations and staffing is a key part of creating a comprehensive, centralized staffing model, but only one part. With those insights in hand, leaders can then take a few key steps to truly advance their organization’s staffing practices.

Keys to Successfully Adopting and Executing Centralized Staffing

Centralized staffing depends on clear, actionable, well-defined processes. Staffing processes, and every person’s role in those processes, must be clear-cut and understood by all to make this approach successful and achieve the many outcomes it can enable. Adopting and deploying a centralized staffing model may look or sound overwhelming at first, but if broken down into phases and key actions to take, hospitals and health system staffing leaders can see immediate improvements without added pain points that sometimes come with other process changes.

Teamwork and creating a more collaborative environment areessential. 

CSOs must collaborate with each unit and all nurses to create and manage the most efficient schedule and staffing plan. The entire team must work together to resolve staffing issues and fill forecasted gaps as needed. Trust is a huge success factor, and increased transparency can aid in that. When unit leaders gain trust in their CSO, they are more understanding when asked to share staff because they can now more easily see where the needs really are and know they will receive the same support when their unit needs it.

Strategy must become the driving factor behind all staffing decisions — fully replacing reactivity and crisis-driven actions.

 When staffing and scheduling, CSOs need to be thinking and acting strategically, which must be supported by data-driven intelligence. With expanded organization-wide staffing data made more accessible, CSO teams can now become better problem solvers. Increased data allows them to balance staff across the enterprise, deploy staffing resources quickly, and provide informed guidance to mitigate staffing shortages. So many staffing issues are alleviated when staffing moves from a tactical to a strategic process.

Staffing as an enterprise, not just a unit, is hugely important for successful centralized models. 

To optimize an organization’s staffing resources and effectively staff across all units, everyone — from unit managers, nursing leaders, and those in the staffing offices — must understand and help meet the needs of each individual unit. With a centralized staffing model and advanced data analytics technology, staffing leaders can minimize floating, an often-frustrating process for nurses, by applying knowledge-based staffing while avoiding understaffing as much as possible. Staffing with a centralized, enterprise-wide approach not only creates a better experience for nurses and other care teams, but also ensures consistent, high-quality care is delivered across the board.

Hospitals and health systems cannot afford to lose any more of their crucially important staff due to lack of planning, lack of insight, or lack of proactivity. By embracing advanced technology and changing the methodology in which they staff from siloed to shared, staffing offices can adequately staff and manage schedules while increasing satisfaction among unit leaders and nurses, all of which drives better work environments, as well as improved care and outcomes for patients.

Hospitals and health systems cannot afford to lose any more of their crucially important staff due to lack of planning, lack of insight, or lack of proactivity.

Adopting Centralized, Enterprise-wide Models for More Effective Staffing

Although a slightly higher percentage of patients with cancer prefer telemedicine to in-person visits, satisfaction scores were equally high for both, according to a study from Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center researchers. The findings were 

JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

The researchers assessed satisfaction and preference from 1,077 survey responses from radiation oncology patients. The patients received care at MSK’s main campus and six regional locations in New York and New Jersey. They were evaluating office and telemedicine visits that took place between December 2019 and June 2020.

A total of 726 of the patients were seen in office for prepandemic visit and 351 patients had telemedicine visits during the pandemic. The median age of patients with telemedicine visits was 65 years (66 years for office visits).

Satisfaction was largely the same. For level of concern by the physician, 92% of patients with a telemedicine visit compared with 93% of patients in office selected the top score. Similarly, 94% chose the top score for telemedicine and 94% for in office when evaluating the friendliness of their physician.

When rating the quality of their physician’s explanations, there was a slight advantage to telemedicine with 91% of those patients selecting the top score compared with 84% of patients who had an in-office visit.

“These findings provide some evidence that there is a role for telemedicine beyond the COVID-19 pandemic and that it can be a particularly useful tool for certain patients—especially those who may have challenges coming on-site for an appointment,” co-lead author Narek Shaverdian, MD, MSK Department of Radiation Oncology, 

. “Giving patients flexibility and options by being able to see them both in-person and through telemedicine can improve access to care.”

According to the survey results, 45% of patients preferred telemedicine, 34% preferred in-office visits, and 21% had no preference for their visit type. Patients who were married or had a partner and who had better performance status were more likely to prefer in-person office visits.

Patients who had a telemedicine visit that included video conferencing were more satisfied. In comparison, patients who had a telephone-only appointment were more likely to say they would benefit from an in-person visit. Shaverdian noted that voice-only encounters with new patients are particularly challenging and telemedicine is really a benefit for patients who have and can use video capabilities.

“Digital tools like telemedicine have the unfortunate potential consequence of paradoxically increasing disparities in access to care,” said co-lead author Erin F. Gillespie, MD, MSK Department of Radiation Oncology. “But the counter to that is there will be some disadvantaged patients that would not have accessed the system at all, either due to technologic barriers or travel time, and now can connect at least by phone, which is an important and positive change.”

While one-third (34%) of patients who completed the telemedicine survey agreed with the statement that “cancer care will be negatively impacted” by the COVID-19 pandemic, only 8% were concerned their own cancer would not be treated successfully because of the pandemic.

Delays in diagnosis and treatment of cancer

 have been well documented and are expected to cause tens to hundreds of thousands of excess cancer deaths. 

, screening and treatments for breast, colon, prostate, and lung cancers saw a particularly harsh decline, according to a study from Avalere Health and the Community Oncology Alliance.

“Telemedicine maintained patient confidence in the physician and treatment, but efforts to increase access to audiovisual technologies must be prioritized to improve patient– physician communication,” the authors concluded. “These data should help inform efforts to maintain access to telemedicine for patients with cancer beyond the pandemic, while highlighting the importance of equitable access to audiovisual technologies to support the most vulnerable patients.”

Patients receiving care at Memorial Sloan Kettering preferred telemedicine visits over in-office visits with similar satisfaction scores.

Patients With Cancer Prefer Telemedicine to In-Person Visits; Satisfaction Is the Same

Doug Mitchell, MD, MBA, is co-founder and CEO of Adfinitas Health, a physician-owned and managed healthcare management practice serving clients in both easy- and difficult-to-recruit geographies.

The healthcare industry and its employees are facing challenges today filled with uncertainty. There is no clear idea of what the "new normal" will look like after the effects of the COVID-19 have subsided. However, what is clear is that challenges were already concerning for hospitals in a pre-COVID-19 environment. 

 published by the American Hospital Association, the median margin for hospitals in the United States before the pandemic was just 3.5%.

Now, the pandemic generated a new set of problems on top of those many hospitals already struggled with, like growing self-pay collections, increased administrative burdens and regulations and plummeting reimbursements. With the cumulative effect of these issues, the industry may go into the red. As the report predicts, this means that nearly half of all hospitals could have negative operating margins by the end of 2021, with rural hospitals feeling the impact more harshly.

To make matters worse, there is also the added stress level of the clinicians feeling the effects of burnout. Even before the pandemic, the rate of burnout was already high, with 40% of physicians 

 of clinicians are ready to leave the industry entirely leading to a shortage of approximately 124,000 clinicians by 2034, as 

 published by the Association of American Medical Colleges. This shortage will adversely affect the entire system, especially physicians who remain and patients who will still need treatment.

What is important to understand is that there is a way through these challenges without arriving at this possible future. Solving operational challenges starts by looking at operating models and staffing from a new perspective. Partnering with a multi-specialty healthcare management company can help hospitals maintain the highest quality care while gaining improved operational efficiencies — both of which are critical in the journey toward post-pandemic recovery. To this effect, there are three areas of focus that a hospital should emphasize and in which the partner should excel when looking to choose that partner.

When looking for an experienced hospitalist partner, they must understand the hospital they are working with. They should demonstrate understanding of its culture and where they fit into it. Not only does this mean exhibiting quality leadership, a willingness to roll up their sleeves, and work alongside hospital leadership, managers and clinicians, but it also means that they are a part of the team, and they are accountable for how that affects patient care. Partners should collect and analyze key performance data to identify opportunities to improve clinical and operational performance and focus on the care they are helping to give as if it were their community.

It is clear from the struggles persisting in the healthcare industry thus far that returning to the operational strategies will not be the way forward. The status quo cannot continue, and it should not be the plan of their new partner. Looking at a new way forward, hospitals need to choose partners committed to innovation and ongoing learning. Look for organizations that think outside the box, such as using a model that trains and employs high-performing advanced practice providers.

Care does not end when the patient leaves the hospital, but in reality, it is difficult to continue this care after they leave. Lack of follow-up care leads to readmissions, emergency care, and potentially life-threatening complications. 

 that nearly one in five patients experience an adverse event within just three weeks of being discharged, 75% of which could have been prevented or alleviated. The three primary reasons are hospital-acquired infections, procedural complications, and adverse drug events.

A hospital should be looking for a partner who understands this and looks for ways to relieve this issue through telehealth outsourcers for post-acute care and remote patient monitoring. A potential partner who demonstrates an understanding of the importance of providing consistency and quality in every patient encounter, no matter where the patient is in the healthcare spectrum, is the right partner.

With all the uncertainty we face daily, it is good to know that the right partner can get the industry to whatever that new normal may be. The ideal partner will provide experienced hospitalist medical directors that oversee financial and clinical care components of your program while you maintain complete control of overall operations, while also delivering consistent, high-quality care through continual communications with your hospital staff, your patients and their families.

Doug Mitchel is co-founder and chief executive officer at Adfinitas Health.

Solving operational challenges starts by looking at operating models and staffing from a new perspective.

Addressing Operational Challenges With a Hospitalist Staffing Partner

In some parts of the country, hospitals and health systems are well prepared to address a surge in flu cases on top of COVID-19 ones; however, in other areas, the staff is burned out from COVID-19 surges, said Leslie Kantor, PhD, MPH, chair and professor of the Department of Urban-Global Public Health, Rutgers School of Public Health. As a result, vaccination against both COVID-19 and influenza is crucial.

COVID-19 and its various surges in cases have tested the capacity of hospitals and health systems over the last 20 months: does that mean they are better prepared to face added flu hospitalizations or burnt out and less capable?

Healthcare systems around the country are really in different situations. For some healthcare systems, in areas where there have been very big surges due to the Delta variant, they're still dealing with overfilled hospitals, a lot of staff burnout. While in other places, there has been more of a chance to take a little bit of a break and prepare for an upcoming potential flu and COVID season.

One thing though, that all health systems are facing around this country is a shortage in many healthcare roles, particularly nursing. So, one of the outcomes of this very tough COVID pandemic is that some people really have decided that healthcare is too stressful. So, all around the country, there's a lot of demand for people to come and work in healthcare.

The flu season peak tends to change year to year, and with COVID-19, we’ve seen surges come and go. How do hospitals and health systems factor these uncertainties into their preparations?

In the United States, the flu season really does begin officially in October, but tends to really get going in those winter months — November, December, January, February — when people are more inside in the colder climates. And flu can spread very, very rapidly.

Even though the peak shifts, what we all need to remember, starting now, is if we haven't gotten our flu vaccine yet, now's the time. It's not too early. It takes about two weeks until you're actually covered, and we are now officially in flu season.

And we all need to remember that when we have any kinds of symptoms, we could, in fact, have flu or we could have COVID, and there is testing and treatment available for both.

The possibility of hospitals and health systems being hit by both COVID-19 and flu hospitalizations makes it crucial people get vaccinated against both, said Leslie Kantor, PhD, MPH, chair and professor of the Department of Urban-Global Public Health, Rutgers School of Public Health.

Dr. Leslie Kantor Examines the Potential “Twindemic” Impact on Health Systems

Steven Landers, MD, MPH, is the president and CEO of the Visiting Nurse Association Health Group, Inc.

It’s true that old habits and old routines die hard — and for decades our nation’s complex healthcare system has, in some areas, been slow to change with the times. But the past year battling the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how quickly — and how fundamentally — we can adjust and improve care when we need to.

In a remarkably short period of time, we’ve dramatically expanded safe and convenient telehealth; we’ve witnessed rapid development and deployment of life-saving vaccines; and we can now reliably test for a potentially deadly virus at home, whereas the same testing, even in a doctor’s office, was incredibly hard to come by a little more than a year ago.

It’s clear that transforming care is possible and healthcare can, indeed, flex to meet the needs of the population. It’s time that we do so for the nation’s Medicare beneficiaries when needing care after a hospitalization — adapting post-acute care delivery to ensure older Americans and their families can select the care setting that’s most appropriate for their health, safety and quality of life.

With the support of federal lawmakers, leading home health advocates are working to ensure those changes happen soon. In fact, new bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Todd Young (R-IN) and Representatives Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and James Comer (R-KY) — and endorsed by AARP — is designed to provide Medicare beneficiaries with expanded options for their recovery care following surgery, illness or injury.

For years, Medicare beneficiaries have overwhelmingly preferred home-based care over nursing homes, but policy restrictions have prevented many seniors from accessing it. Many patients who go to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) after hospitalization have similar levels of disease and impairment to those who receive care at home. The main difference in these patients is that individuals ultimately admitted to SNFs often don’t have access to the kind of supplemental health care support they’ll need.

The Choose Home Care Act (S.2562/H.R. 5514) offers an opportunity to change that by enabling eligible Medicare patients to receive 

 care services as an add-on to the existing Medicare Home Health benefit — for 30 days post-discharge from a hospital. In real-world terms, it’s a law that seeks to help more seniors recover in the comfort and dignity of their homes — by offering expanded home health services like skilled nursing, therapy, primary care, personal care, continuous remote patient monitoring, meals, home adaptations, and non-emergent transportation.

Providing for comprehensive care services will help more seniors remain independent in the community and has the potential to deliver cost savings to the Medicare program. One expert 

 anticipates that the Choose Home model would generate as much as $247 million in savings annually in avoided skilled nursing facility stays.

, conducted by Morning Consult, underscores the popularity of home health and the importance of passing the Choose Home Care Act. Of the poll respondents, 86 percent of adults, including 94 percent of Medicare beneficiaries, expressed support for the legislation.

Not to be overlooked, the enhanced home health options outlined in the Choose Home Care Act are designed to improve patient and family satisfaction and increase their care options. These choices and flexibilities are especially important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

There has never been a better time for our lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to enable the delivery of more care in the home. The Choose Home approach offers bold new post-acute options, addresses gaps in care for seniors, and positions Medicare to avoid unnecessary institutional spending. This is an incredible opportunity for our nation, with an aging population, to embrace new approaches to healthcare.

Craig Mandeville is founder and CEO of Forcura.

Healthcare needs to adapt so Medicare beneficiaries can select the care setting that’s most appropriate for their health, safety and quality of life when they require care after a hospitalization.

Give American Seniors the Option to Choose Home After a Hospital Discharge

In this episode of Healthy Bottom Line, we spoke with Joe Polaris, senior vice president of product and technology at R1 RCM, a revenue cycle management company providing technology-based solutions to improve the patient experience and the financial performance of healthcare organizations. We discussed the effect that concerns over healthcare costs can have on patients’ willingness to seek out care and how price transparency can help. We also talked about CMS’ recent hospital price transparency rule as well as other avenues health systems can take to address cost concerns.

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Joe Polaris, senior vice president of product and technology at R1 RCM, discussed how price transparency can increase hospital revenues and address patient concerns regarding exorbitant healthcare costs as well as the impact that CMS’ new price transparency rule could have on hospitals.

Healthy Bottom Line: Why More Price Transparency Is Needed to Address Healthcare Cost Concerns

Dan L. Dodson is CEO of Fortified Health Security, a recognized leader in cybersecurity that is 100% focused on the healthcare market.

The continued onslaught of cyberattacks and ransomware attacks against U.S. companies in all industries can cause leaders to become numb to the latest headlines. But a devil-may-care attitude won’t stop bad actors from targeting companies, especially those in healthcare, where information is the most valuable, hospital IT systems are in use 24/7/365, and IT networks are increasingly complex.

During the first half of 2021, 343 data breaches were reported to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). That represents a 27% increase from the first six months of 2020. What’s more, the incidence of 

Healthcare providers accounted for 73% of all breaches in the first half of 2020, followed by health plans (16%) and business associates (11%).

The cost for mitigating breaches is highest among healthcare organizations, topping 

 And healthcare ranks last among industries in the length of time is takes to discover and contain a breach — 329 days or almost 11 months. Financial services companies, an industry also tightly regulated by the federal government due to the sensitive nature of data it deals with, can detect and contain a breach three months faster.

“The best defense is a good offense” often describes sports tactics, but the phrase originated in military conflicts, an apt comparison to today’s cybersecurity environment where increasingly sophisticated attacks against hospitals and health systems occur almost daily. It is not enough to wait passively for an attack to occur. Healthcare cybersecurity professionals must be ever vigilant to protect against internal and external threats, and organizational leaders must prioritize information security resources and projects against many other competing priorities.

Consider these seven steps to strengthen the information security at your organization:

Few hospitals fully grasp the sheer number of IT connections they have across the healthcare landscape or the depth of those connections. Electronic health records (EHRs), picture archiving and communications laboratory systems, pharmacy systems and more obvious systems that maintain potential external connections; each system and each device that connects to any of these core systems must also be monitored and protected. The proliferation of internet-enabled medical devices has exponentially increased the number of connections to EHRs. Federal efforts to increase connectivity among providers are also bringing new challenges, especially around security standards. A robust security solution can automate the identification, assessment, and protection of connected devices.

No one becomes proficient during an emergency, so understanding your organization’s vulnerabilities and testing for the most likely scenarios will help staff respond more quickly and efficiently to an actual event. The first step is to create proactive policies and plans to govern the IT network and employees. Leveraging a third party that performs security assessments and can help an organization develop an incident response plan may allow your organization to achieve its objectives quicker than by using in-house resources. As a bonus, an independent perspective can help identify areas for security improvement.

Create an incident response plan and test your plan

Creating an incident response plan is critical to respond effectively to an attack, as proper preparation will facilitate a faster response when an incident is discovered. Think of it this way: if you need emergency surgery, do you want a surgeon who always operates on a set schedule or one who constantly deals with emergent cases? Likewise, putting a plan into action should be second nature to cybersecurity veterans who have planned for this eventuality. Do you have sufficiently experienced in-house personnel to handle potential emergencies? The time to determine this isn’t when a ransomware attack occurs.

People are often the weak link in the cybersecurity chain, falling victim to phishing, pharming or email account compromise attacks. Every employee who has access to IT systems and sensitive data should, at the bare minimum, receive training annually to reinforce policies and refresh memories about information security issues. Frequent security reminders in employee communications also can help. Some organizations test the effectiveness of their employee security and aware training program by performing internal phishing campaigns and monitoring the response, retraining and educating those individuals who fail the test. This type of training is especially important for job titles that are often specifically targeted, including executives, IT administrators, network teams, and accounting and finance teams.

Access to IT systems should be restricted to only those who explicitly require it. For example, medical and billing staff obviously need to interact with the EHR, but the human resources department may not. Does every employee really need an email account, and if so, are they required to access it outside the organization? Restricting access, requiring multi-factor authentication or single sign-on, and providing regular education can help protect systems. By limiting user access to the minimal amount required, cybersecurity teams reduce the potential attack surface, which reduces risk.

 as much as one-third in 2021 because of the considerable increase in ransomware attacks. In response to increasing payouts, insurance companies are hiking deductibles, limiting their exposure, and demanding security certifications as a condition of coverage. The average ransomware payout quadrupled during 2020, significantly increasing the exposure of insurance companies. Do not mistake cyber insurance as a security control. Rather, is a transfer of risk above a threshold determined by an organization. To minimize the likelihood of an incident (and a payout), organizations must be proactive in maintaining its security program and the associated controls.

Cybersecurity functions are critical to the practice of healthcare, but the considerable demand for cybersecurity personnel may leave hospitals and health systems lacking. The U.S. Commerce Department in May estimated about 

465,000 nationwide cybersecurity openings

. Healthcare IT staff members are usually spread thin and generalists in technology matters, rather than the cybersecurity experts tasked to proactively safeguard a hospital’s vital information and systems. While IT staff may be needed to maintain computers and servers, most IT functions can be outsourced to a third party with specialized skills and guaranteed service levels. In particular, cybersecurity is best left in the hands of those with the right training and particular healthcare knowledge and expertise.

Until the healthcare industry starts to show resilience in repelling unrelenting waves of malware and ransomware attacks, they certainly will continue. Protecting critical infrastructure and data is not for the faint-hearted, as attacks become bolder and connections among healthcare technologies grow in number and sophistication. These attacks hit not just the bottom line but can severely hamper patient care and tarnish brand reputation. Lawsuits are being filed with 

 who were prevented from receiving care during a cyberattack.

Organizations must recognize that cybersecurity is more a journey than a destination. Threats are a constant, and your security program, which includes monitoring and remediation efforts, should never be one-and-done. Consider what can be in-house to improve security or look to a third party with expertise in the unique demands of healthcare cybersecurity.

Dan L. Dodson is CEO of Fortified Health Security, a recognized leader in cybersecurity that is 100% focused on the healthcare market. He is the author of the “

” on the state of cybersecurity in healthcare. Through Dan’s leadership, Fortified Health Security partners with healthcare organizations to effectively develop the best path forward for their security program based on their unique needs and challenges.

Organizations must recognize that cybersecurity is more a journey than a destination.

7 Ways to Strengthen Information Security at Your Organization

Andy Daniels will resign as CEO of Memorial Regional Health (MRH) in Craig, Colorado, effective Jan. 15, 2022. He has been CEO since August 2016 and was the first person in the position since 1987. The Board of Trustees will name an interim CEO.

Geisinger Names First Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer

Kim Drumgo has been named the first chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at Geisinger health system. In the position, Drumgo will guide the organization to understand the importance and value of a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment.

Drumgo has more than 15 years of experience in diversity and inclusion and has held leadership roles in several organizations. Most recently, she was the chief diversity officer for Anthem, and she also worked previously as Blue Cross Blue Sheild of North Carolina.

AdventHealth Names President, CEO for Two Locations

On December 19, Chris Self will assume the role of president and CEO for AdventHealth Gordon and AdventHealth Murray. He is the current president and CEO for AdventHealth Manchester. In his new role, he will oversee operations and provide leadership to communities in Northwest Georgia.

Self has worked for AdventHealth for 17 years in multiple leadership roles. He started in Florida, before moving to North Carolina. With Self moving to AdventHealth Gordon and Murray, a search is underway to find a president and CEO for AdventHealth Manchester. In the interim, Pete Weber will serve as CEO.

Chief Nursing Officer at CommonSpirit Health Southern California

Ron Yolo, DNP, MSN, MBA, RN, has been named the chief nursing officer (CNO) of CommonSpirit Health’s newly expanded Southern California Division. Yolo will support 18 Dignity Health hospitals reach goals related to safety, quality, population health, patient experience, and employee engagement.

Yolo has spent 22 years with Dignity Health, starting with St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach. In 2018, he was named CNO at Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center.

Yet another organization has hired someone to fill the newly created role of chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer and more executive moves.