Managing the Healthcare Information Stream

Transcription

1 Managing the Healthcare Information Stream Healthcare data is rapidly becoming a growing torrent that must be brought under control. by Jay Savaiano CommVault Director of Business Development, Healthcare

2 GRAPH 1 How much data are you presently managing within your environment? Unsure/NA 150TB+ 21% 29% 0 5TB 6% 6 10TB 9% 15% TB 11 25TB 26 75TB The proliferation of healthcare data from a variety of sources is threatening to overwhelm the global healthcare delivery system. The massive amounts of information that enter our healthcare systems from multiple tributaries new software applications and hardware solutions, the growing number of electronic health records (EHRs), picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), and an ever-increasing number of edge-based mobile devices can be compared to the Mississippi River that flows through the heart of the United States. Most people are unaware that this great river does not flow unmanaged to the Gulf of Mexico. There are a series of 27 locks and dams that manage its flow, and thousands of miles of levees that keep the river in its banks most of the time. These locks, dams and levees are managed by, and from, a centralized source, so the best decisions can be made as to how to control the river s flow to the optimal advantage of the citizens who live along its banks. The increased growth and excessive flow of healthcare data through our healthcare system cannot be stopped but it can be managed and harnessed for the betterment of healthcare, if the right strategies and tools are in place. Just like the Mississippi River, the enormous amounts of healthcare data require the same kinds of management and control solutions. Without them, the information flowing through our healthcare systems is nothing more than an untamed, wild torrent. How Large Is the Challenge of Managing the Healthcare Information Stream? The Healthcare industry is producing a mind-boggling amount of information on a daily basis. It passed the 150 exabytes mark just a year or so ago. 1 One exabyte of data = 1,000 petabytes or 1 billion gigabytes. Five exabytes of data could contain all the words ever spoken by the human race. 2 At the present growth rate, U.S. healthcare data will soon reach zettabyte status. One zettabyte = 1,000 exabytes and not long after that, yottabyte status will be achieved. One yottabyte = 1,000 zettabytes. Healthcare is truly producing a mind-boggling amount of data that needs to be managed and controlled. A specific example: Kaiser Permanente, the California-based health network, which has more than 9 million members, is estimated to have between 26.5 petabytes and 44 petabytes of patient data under management just from their electronic health record (EHR) data which includes images and annotations. 3 This is the same amount of information that would be contained in 4,400 Libraries of Congress. In a recent survey of over 200 executives from healthcare systems and standalone hospitals 4, 38.4 percent of the respondents indicated they are already dealing with a data flow of from 76 to 150 terabytes on a daily basis. One terabyte = 1,000 gigabytes of information. What Is Causing the Problem? As technology has rapidly advanced, the amount of information a healthcare facility must manage has grown exponentially. Today, providers must manage EHR data, digitized paper records, digital images, videos, sonograms, PET scans, CAT scans, X-rays and much more. As the amount of healthcare data continues to grow, IT storage and management costs are expected to increase significantly. One of largest contributors to this data infusion is the information being captured and stored in EHRs. The number of EHRs is expected to grow even larger in the coming years as more facilities adopt electronic records, and rely increasingly on mobile applications and devices such as tablets

3 and smartphones to gather this patient information. The survey showed that of the 200 hospital executives queried, 142 anticipated their greatest growth in healthcare data will come from EHRs, and thirty-eight indicated PACS. GRAPH 2 In which of the following areas do you anticipate seeing the most data management growth in 2014? The proliferation of mobile devices and bring-your-own-devices (BYOD) a trend that is expected to grow has the potential to create multiple security challenges for providers. Unsure: 4% Other: 5% None: 1% 3% EMR Another key challenge in the data management process is security. How can healthcare providers be sure the data they are managing is secure, and in compliance with all Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other protected health information (PHI) regulations. The proliferation of mobile devices and bring-your-own-devices (BYOD) a trend that is expected to grow has the potential to create multiple security challenges for providers. The challenge is even further exacerbated by the owners of those BYOD solutions signing up for bring-your-own-cloud (BYOC). Nearly 75 percent of the respondents indicated they were concerned about data being stored outside of their environment on these mobile devices. PACS 18% 69% Security Data Breaches in the Information Stream Are Very Costly Just as a breach in a river levee causes millions of dollars in damages healthcare data breaches are also very costly. Data breaches cost the U.S. healthcare industry nearly $7 billion annually, according to a study published in a July 2, 2012 Forbes magazine online newsletter 5. For the more than 21 million individuals affected by these healthcare data breaches, the cost is often more personal, than financial. Medical identity theft can endanger a person s physical and emotional health, as well as his or her financial status. There are some who feel that the rise in EHR usage has been a contributor to putting many patients privacy at risk. An EHR solution is only the repository of data, it is the human aspect of how that information is stored and secured that place PHI at risk. The challenges of maintaining the privacy of confidential patient data continue to grow as more and more of this information is being entered into new EHR systems, as mandated by government regulations. Data breaches have become entrenched into the very fabric of everyone s daily life. I don t believe a week goes by that there is not a media release pointing out a situation of PHI getting into the wrong hands. The issues faced in maintaining the security of PHI is a global in nature and having the correct tools in place to minimize exposure is on the minds of all healthcare executives. What Can Be Done to Manage the Data Breach Challenge? With the proliferation of structured and unstructured data records, healthcare organizations are struggling to balance IT and business priorities when it comes to retaining both patient and internal information records to remain in compliance with HIPAA and HITECH Act regulations. Improper management of this data can lead to crippling IT inefficiencies, skyrocketing costs and failures in compliance with record keeping mandates. These risks must be addressed at the highest levels. One recommended proactive method to address these risks is for healthcare organizations to institute ediscovery processes for data privacy, security, and potential breach sources. This type of planning can detect potential data breaches and mitigate

4 GRAPH 3 With the growth in laptops, tablets and smartphones within healthcare is your organization concerned that PHI in unstructured content ( , Word, Excel, etc.) may be getting stored outside of your environment? Yes: 75% No: 15% Unsure: 15% GRAPH 4 Has your organization implemented an ediscovery/enterprise search solution to support regulatory compliance around HIPAA or PCI? Yes: 32% No: 45% Unsure: 23% 23% 45% 75% 32% their devastating effects before they occur. Healthcare organizations need to commit sufficient resources in order to make significant changes and solve this growing security challenge. The survey found that 45.3 percent of the healthcare respondents have not instituted any kind of enterprise-wide ediscovery process to uncover any HIPAA or PHI violations. The good news is that 31.7 percent of the respondents have conducted such an ediscovery process. Ensuring Regulatory Compliance In February 2014, FierceHealth reported that more than seven million patient records containing protected health information (PHI) were breached last year, an increase of 138 percent from Maintaining regulatory compliance is not new for healthcare, although as the numbers suggest healthcare organizations need to take a more direct approach in supporting compliance within their organizations. The data that was gathered from the survey demonstrates that healthcare organizations do have concerns and are looking to rectify the problem. When they were asked to rank the level of importance on their investment in data management technology the number one response was that ensuring regulatory compliance was the driver for influencing their investment in data management technologies. Similar to the management of the river and the need to maintain the flow within the banks, healthcare organizations look to maintain their data within the confines of the data center and prevent any breaches of PHI. Managing the Healthcare Data Stream Realizing the magnitude of the challenge required to manage the healthcare data stream is the first step toward solving the problem. The survey asked respondents to identify their top barrier to implementing an enterprise data management solution. Lack of IT funds was the main issue that organizations were facing. This is always a challenge within organizations, healthcare or non-healthcare. More and more healthcare organizations are looking to simplify operational processes like data management. This barrier can be overcome by selecting a data management solution that fully supports any clinical environment and is compatible across all applications from EHRs to PACS as well as all hardware and OS platforms. This type of agility offers a holistic approach to data and information management for a variety of systems that can be easily protected, recovered, archived, de-duplicated and searched for ediscovery and compliance without the added cost and complexity of disparate point products. Cloud-based Data Management May Provide a Silver Lining An overlooked solution to the growing data management challenge may be an enterprise-wide cloud-based system. Some healthcare organizations have already discovered the viability of these solutions, while others are still considering the technology, which can simplify the growing complexities of healthcare data management. The survey showed that 16.3 percent of the respondents have adopted cloud-based storage and management, while 73.3 percent have not. As to adopting cloud-based data management in the future, 22.4 percent said cloud technology was in their plans, while 44.3 percent said they had no immediate plans for the cloud and 24.3 percent were not sure of their plans. There is an ever growing challenge with providers who want to support healthcare environments, but have issues with signing Business Associate Agreements (BAA) in support of compliance.

5 Centralized Management of the Data Stream A single-solution, cloud-based platform enables the central management of a common set of data and information policies that span diverse groups and systems, from the data center to the edge to the cloud. To further reduce risks, this type of technology platform can ensure all data sources are accounted for in a single, organization-wide search. By providing rapid access to EHR information, indexed PACS data and other clinical information, the system enhances patient outcomes, as it saves time and money. GRAPH 5 Are you presently using a cloud storage solution? Yes: 16% No: 74% Unsure: 16% Due to their scalable design, cloud-based data management and storage solutions streamline operations, allowing users to manage the unprecedented growth rates in EHRs, RIS, PACS, , structured and unstructured data and other information file systems, while simultaneously significantly cutting storage-related costs. Client s storage needs can be quickly scaled up or down to manage changes in their data stream flow. Data is conveniently housed and indexed in virtual repositories that help meet ediscovery and compliance demands. Additional cloud features such as global de-duplication and integrated archive, backup and reporting can also reduce operations management significantly. Security and Regulatory Compliance in the Cloud Enterprise cloud solutions provide a highly secure foundation for healthcare data management systems, with an architecture designed to help meet today s critical compliance and certification requirements including SAS-70 Type II Audit and Safe Harbor. Cloud security experts work continually to provide a secure environment that protects PHI and reduces HIPAA violations. GRAPH 6 74% If you are not presently using a cloud storage solution, do you plan on leveraging one in 2013 to manage your data growth? Yes: 24% No: 49% Unsure: 27% An excellent feature of cloud-based data management systems is their ability to provide security for mobile devices used to access information outside of the facility. This greatly simplifies HIPAA compliance and helps clients meet security and availability requirements. This feature gives clients secure, mobile access anywhere to information across the organization, enhancing collaborative care and patient outcomes. 27% 49% 24% Conclusion The increased growth and excessive flow of healthcare data through our healthcare system is here to stay. It cannot be stopped, but it can be managed and harnessed to help healthcare providers improve patient outcomes and operate more efficiently. With the right technology solutions, the healthcare data torrent can be cost-efficiently tamed and securely managed, while still complying with all regulatory and reporting mandates. 1,3 Institute for Health Technology Transformation, 2013, 244 5th Ave # 2150, New York, NY 10001, page 5. 2 New York Times, November 12, 2003, Editorial 4 This survey was conducted by River Bend Marketing for CommVault. Over 200 healthcare executives responded out of 6,000 surveyed. 5 July 2, 2012 Forbes magazine online newsletter 6 Most health IT execs unprepared for a data breach - FierceHealthIT CommVault is a software company relentlessly focused on all things data. We are dedicated to providing organizations worldwide with a radically better way to protect, manage and access data and information. Our flagship Simpana software suite of products was designed to work together seamlessly from the ground up, sharing a single code and common function set, to deliver superlative Data Protection, Archive, Replication, Search and Resource Management capabilities. More information available at

6 CommVault Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CommVault, CommVault and logo, the CV logo, CommVault Systems, Solving Forward, SIM, Singular Information Management, Simpana, CommVault Galaxy, Unified Data Management, QiNetix, Quick Recovery, QR, CommNet, GridStor, Vault Tracker, InnerVault, QuickSnap, QSnap, Recovery Director, CommServe, CommCell, IntelliSnap, ROMS, Simpana OnePass, and CommValue, are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems, Inc. All other third party brands, products, service names, trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of and used to identify the products or services of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change without notice.