How to Create a Secure Medical Site

Every medical practice knows the importance of doctor-patient confidentiality. It’s one of the fundamental pillars of modern medicine.

Patients should feel confident that their personal health information is safe. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

Medical websites can be vulnerable to malicious online hacks and data breaches. Medical data breaches have been particularly harmful in 2017. In fact, one recent breach involved over 260,000 patient’s health information.

You need to create a secure site to keep your patient’s data safe. But what does that entail?

Are you in the process of creating a website for a medical practice and want to make sure that it’s secure? Read on to find out more!

HTTPS

One small letter can make a big difference. That’s certainly the case when it comes to “HTTPS”.

Have you ever noticed that some website URL’s start with HTTPS instead of HTTP? The extra “S” refers to Secure Sockets Layers. It’s an extra encryption tool that can protect websites against malicious hacks.

Google has already begun to mark sites that use “HTTP” as insecure. Users that come to a non-HTTPS site will get a message in their location bar that says “Not Secure” on certain pages. This could appear when patients try to enter their medical information.

HTTPS is fundamental to keeping your site secure. It will also prevent patients from feeling insecure about entering personal health information. You can learn more about what an HTTPS site should look like at the Colorado Springs Physical Therapy site.

Backup

HIPAA created standards that can help you maintain a secure site. One such standard is the requirement for backups.

You have to back up all personal health information collected on your site. This helps you recover the information in the event of a virus or website error.

The good news is that many web hosts provide backup services with their basic packages. You should check that this is the case with your web host prior to signing any agreement.

Authorization

One key question to ask when creating your site is “who can access the personal health information?”

Your site will collect large amounts of data that are protected by HIPAA standards. This data will be available to your web hosting provider.

You need to make sure that your web hosting provider is a trusted HIPAA Business Associate. You will authorize your web host to access this data. You should also request to review their privacy agreement.

You can never be too safe with personal health information. Double check your authorization to keep your site secure.

Encryption

Encryption is a surefire way to keep your site safe. Adding encryption will make sure that data is only accessible by authorized parties.

It will also help to make your backups safer. Data breaches are unlikely to occur after encryption. However, if a breach does occur you will have less liability.

You can also do a site analysis to monitor your data and keep it secure.