Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1460433
67 CIO / HEALTH IT 18 data points that make EHRs attractive to hackers By Katie Adams A n increasing share of cyber- criminals are targeting EHRs, HHS warned healthcare pro- viders in a Feb. 17 threat brief. "It is recommended that healthcare leaders shift their focus by moving beyond a prevention strategy and creating a proactive preparedness plan," HHS said in the brief. The brief detailed why EHRs are such attractive targets for hackers. It out- lined the 18 identifiers that "provide criminals with more information than any other breached record." They are the following: 1. Names 2. Dates, except year 3. Telephone numbers 4. Geographic data 5. Fax numbers 6. Social Security numbers 7. Email addresses 8. Medical record numbers 9. Account numbers 10. Health plan beneficiary numbers 11. Certificate/license numbers 12. Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers, including license plates 13. Web URLs 14. Device identifiers and serial num- bers 15. Internet protocol addresses 16. Full face photos and comparable images 17. Biometric identifiers (such as reti- nal scans and fingerprints) 18. Any unique identifying number or code n Veterans Affairs CIO sets sights on digital transformation By Naomi Diaz K urt DelBene, CIO of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said he is focused on an agencywide digital transformation, moving toward increased investments in cloud-based applications and telemedicine, ComputerWorld reported Feb. 18. During a Feb. 17 media roundtable, Mr. DelBene, a former Microsoft executive, said his goal is to transform the agency's technology landscape to power a more seamless, unified experience for veterans. Here's what he has planned: • Modernize the department's IT systems and improve internal software devel- opment offerings, including low-code and no-code solutions. • Get the department to decrease its reliance on outside contractors while in- creasing knowledge about when it's appropriate to use outside contractors versus when work can be done internally. • Continue working on connecting two health information exchanges. • Push into telemedicine, as the department has seen a surge in telemedicine visits for veterans in rural areas. n EHR study gives UCHealth nurses time back at bedside By Naomi Diaz A urora, Colo.-based UCHealth saved nurses 64,800 hours by simplifying documen- tation processes within its Epic electronic health record system, according to a Feb. 14 EpicShare report. e hospital used reports in Epic to discover that nurses were spending more than 30 percent of their 12-hour shis working in the hospital system's EHR. In response, the hospital formed "Project Joy" in 2017 to incorporate technology that provides several distinct tools to cap- ture patient data and reduce the time nurses spend on documentation, according to Bonnie Adrian, PhD, RN, research nurse scientist for clinical informatics at UCHealth. Project Joy was able to optimize nursing documentation across the hospital by trimming 18 minutes of time spent in flowsheets per nurse shi, reducing the amount of time and number of actions needed to complete documentation and cutting the required nursing documenta- tion for the average patient by more than half. Here's how UCHealth did it: • UCHealth created a team of nurses to identify unnecessary documentation. • e nurses worked with informaticists to show flowsheets only when necessary. • e team reviewed proposed changes with all organizational stakeholders. • e team measured outcomes using EHR tools and qualitative assessments. • UCHealth created processes for nurses to suggest documentation improvements. n