subject: Medical Data Entry Outsourcing - How Secure Is Your Data? [print this page] With the immense popularity of offshore outsourcing, more and more industry sectors are adopting it as an inherent strategical function. One of the major industries that rely on the outsourcing model is Medical & Health Care Industry. Be it clinical research or trials or medical transcription tasks or simple data entry work thereof, offshore outsourcing has become a norm than an exception.
However, is outsourcing of medical records and patient information really safe?
Security Challenges in Medical Data Entry Outsourcing
Security of data is one of the key challenges faced by the offshore outsourcing industry. With stories about recent cases of data leakage and misuse of information, the very concept of offshore outsourcing is under scrutiny.
Health care facilities that outsource their medical data entry works have absolutely no idea as to who is actually doing their work. There are cases wherein the outsourcing service provider sub-contracts the work to smaller companies and thereby lose control over the end transcriber. This can result into serious consequences for the client.
What Needs To Be Done?
To cut a long story short, everything depends upon your choice of service provider. In order to avoid any such mis-happenings, you need to ensure that, while outsourcing the medical data entry tasks, you choose an ethical and professional service provider. This can be done by checking his track record with other companies. Here are some things you need to look out for:
No Use of Sub Contractors
Choose a service provider that does not use sub contractors for executing the work. In addition you need to be diligent and keep monitoring the progress of the service provider throughout the project. Another important thing you need to ensure is to draft a professional contract that contains a clear no sub contractor clause within it.
Prioritize Customer Services
You need to make sure that your service provider should prioritize their customers needs in the best and all the work that you outsource to them is taken care of by their own team of trained professionals.
Secure Physical Location
If possible, visit your service provider's company to check out their security arrangements. A professional service provider would have manned security at entry and exit points, surveillance cameras, not allow any removable storage devices and have only limited access of systems and information on a need to know basis.
Ensures Complete Data Security
In addition to ensuring that your data doesn't leave the premises of the company, your service provider should ensure data security by incorporating security measures like data encryption protocols, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security, safeguards, firewall protected networks, sterilized e-mail servers, denial of access procedure and multi model alerts. Its always advisable to go for the vendor which not only uses the latest state of technology for your work but also has trained personal to handle such software with firmness and accuracy.
Expert Data Entry Professionals
Medical data entry is a great deal different from regular data entry jobs. It requires a strong medical background and effective knowledge of clinical research and trials. Moreover, you need to ensure that the people working on your data are educated on the importance of being HIPAA and HITECH compliant. Also for better results in specific types of data entry tasks, it might be preferred that before initiating a project some customized training pertaining the nature of the project is provided to the team appointed to be dealing with that project. Such trainings can be given jointly by the two outsourcing partners.
The above points act as the checklist for verifying and finalizing the service provider before signing the deal with him. Also the terms of contract should be designed in a manner to cover the data security and confidentiality clause as well apart from the legal and financial terms. Even a penalty clause and a risk management plan should be well discussed between the two partners to be able to properly handle the negative effects in case of any leakage of information/data or breach of any terms of contract.
