05.23.2024 PCS
Many homes still rely on paper-based MAR charts for medication management, but digital transformation can present new opportunities for ensuring greater data protection in care homes
By now, many decision-makers in care settings understand the growing importance of using digital solutions and the data that it provides to aid in helping to promote better quality of life, of care, and to ensure better safety for residents. Despite this, many care homes still rely on paper-based MAR charts for tracking medications.
Whether this is because of perceived budgetary constraints, the absence of a culture that embraces digital transformation or any other reason, for some care home owners the digital transformation has proven difficult. But it doesn’t have to be; whatever challenges going digital throws up, the rewards and opportunities for improvement in the quality of care are infinitely greater. One of the main areas where this is the case is in data protection in care homes.
For care homes that are still using paper MAR charts, the records of medications administration would be stored in folders in locked rooms. But as is the case with any paper-based record, there is always a significant risk of loss, damage or theft which puts the safety and privacy of residents at risk. Even if all the precautions a care home manager can think of are taken to protect paper records, all it takes is for a fire to break out in that room, and they’re all gone forever. The old saying might be “you can’t hack paper,” but you can certainly lose or more easily destroy paper, and with it the valuable records on which they were kept.
In recent years, there has been a major shift towards using digital technology to keep records on resident information in care homes, as is the case in the healthcare and medicine sector in general. As such, security is no longer just a matter of locking the room, but to ensure that the information is kept safe online with the right blend of physical, technical and administrative measures.
Safeguarding access to medicines information and other records
One of the most important benefits of using digital records is that they are readily accessible and available to staff members no matter where they are or whether they’re using a smartphone or desktop. However, more sceptical people might argue that this also means that they are more readily accessible to unauthorised users and cybercriminals.
But the reality is that most of the time, this is only true if data protection in care homes isn’t taken seriously; any reputable provider of data protection will present you with such robust safeguarding options that access to unencrypted data is practically impossible if you take all necessary precautions.
The positives vastly outweigh the potential negatives in this case too. Accessibility is vital for delivering better experiences for the people living in care homes, as well as for allowing nurses and staff to keep track of medications and ensure compliance to privacy and security policies. To make that happen without exposing your organisation or your residents to greater risk, you need several layers of security.
By contrast, the only way to secure paper-based records is to keep them behind one layer of security – a locked door.
One of the key layers of security for digital records, as mentioned earlier, is encryption. Modern encryption algorithms are practically unbreakable and offer peace of mind because applying encryption to data in transit and in storage means that even if it was accessed by a potential hacker or cybercriminal, the information they would find would be completely useless to them.
Another essential security layer for data protection in care homes is multifactor authentication (MFA). Relying on passwords alone will leave your online-accessible systems highly vulnerable to social engineering scams designed to dupe unsuspecting users into giving away their login details. However, with MFA, users will need to verify their identity by using a secondary method, such as a one-time code sent via SMS or email or an app like Google Authenticator.
This added layer of security is critical because it means even if someone did gain access to your password and login details, without MFA approval they would still not be able to log in. Usually, suspicious log in attempts, like those made from a new device, are flagged by your email provider and they will send you an email asking if it was you. If it wasn’t, then you are alert to the issue almost immediately.
Fortunately, thanks to apps like Google Authenticator, it is neither difficult nor prohibitively expensive to protect these systems with MFA.
Technical and administrative safeguards, such as encryption, backup and disaster recovery, and MFA are all part of the safeguarding used to protect digital data in care homes. Sensitive information like medication records of people living in care homes needs to be protected, so partnering with an eMAR provider who has solid and robust safeguarding features is critical to ensuring data protection in care homes’ medication management.
Putting digital security and privacy first
ATLAS eMAR provides peace of mind with its two-factor authentication, which is required when attempting to enter any screen containing resident data. If you want to learn more about how ATLAS eMAR can keep your data safe and how it can transform your medications management process, click below to book a consultation and speak with one of our experts.
