Privacy Matters

Privacy and Security Community of Practice article I Sharon Campbell

Welcome back to 2023! I don’t want to jinx it by saying it is going to be great but fingers crossed!

Anyway, privacy and security of health information is still firmly on the agenda and it is not going away anytime soon. Evidence being provided in my inbox this morning from a news article. Although this has occurred in America it just demonstrates that we need to be across any potential breaches and be aware of what we need to do in terms of breaches in Australia. Even if you are not in the IT section you still need to have an interest! Question the controls that vendors have and so on. We don’t have to think too far back to remember the awful data breaches of Medibank Private and Optus that are still causing immense pain for Australians. If you were not aware the OAIC launched an investigation into the Medibank Private breach and the Optus Breach.

The OAIC will be running Privacy Awareness Week 2023 from the 1-7 May 2023. This is something that HIMAA supports every year also. Organisations can obtain resources and links to discussions when they become a partner for PAW 2023.

Findings will be released by the OAIC in 2023 in their findings on the Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Study (ACAPS) 2023. This is a three-yearly comprehensive survey that looks at attitudes of Australians towards key privacy issues, experiences and perspectives in relation to the use and misuse of personal data and so on. This will make for an interesting read and good to provide to key stakeholders at your organisation. The OAIC has also mentioned that a review of the Notifiable Data Breaches Act is also underway to assess its ongoing competency in light of the major breaches that have occurred.

Finally, a reminder that although HIMs and Clinical Coders are usually a repository of silence when it comes to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of patients, there are many others who are not. This is where ongoing education on privacy and confidentiality for all staff from cleaners to receptionists, medical record clerks and nursing staff needs to occur. Who can forget the awful radio prank that resulted in a receptionist putting through a call from a Radio Station in Australia which a nurse took and relayed information relating to a member of the royal family (Duchess of Cambridge) who was an inpatient in a London Hospital (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-20645838 ). The devastating impact resulting in the sudden death of the nurse who relayed the information. This is why it is important to still maintain vigilance, especially when we consider that we have new staff commencing regularly in our health services.

If you are keen to find out more or get ideas on how to manage privacy and confidentiality concerns then join our Community of Practice (HIMAA Privacy and Security Community of Practice). We will have planned meetings commencing towards the end of March 2023. Hope to see you there! Contact Scampbell@bethesda.org.au if you are interested. Existing members I will be in touch soon!

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