What is Data Governance in Healthcare?
Data governance generally means managing the large volumes of sensitive data obtained regularly and gleaning important insights from it. This data can aid in making quality-based business decisions that impact the long term. This is especially important in the healthcare sector. They deal with sheer volumes of sensitive data on a by-patient basis, and this data point can be leveraged to make salient observations about patient health. Any worrying trends may be picked up on, and data governance helps with patient care in the short run. The organization benefits from investing in better data analytics capabilities in the long run.
Why is data governance in healthcare important?
Healthcare data includes patient details, immunization records, payment and insurance claims, and surgical records, among other information. The initial approach to data governance was made by switching to Electronic Health Records (EHRs). However, data maintenance is arguably the most important endeavor, and data obtained must be ethical, secure, and accurate and requires authorization by specific personnel.
Data Governance principles help by eradicating redundancy in information and improving the quality and consistency of data using EHR interface functionalities. FileCloud is the answer to all your questions related to compliance.
FileCloud and its approach to Data Governance
FileCloud has the best data governance approaches regarding data storage and archival. The Audit option lets you access activity logs as and when required. Retention policy information helps with trade concerns, lawsuits, infringements, consumer complaints, and redressal.
What is data and information governance?
Principle-based and NOT a new approach
Data governance is not a new concept with respect to healthcare. It refers to all the general principles one needs to have when dealing with any and all kinds of data. It just provides a framework to act on.
AHIMA definition
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) defines information governance as an important link to data governance. Information governance refers to an organizational approach to maintaining data so that information can be obtained and acted upon- in the form of EHRs, for example.‘Data’ can be any kind of value or statistic obtained. Still, it does not necessarily help you make an effective conclusion. ‘Information,’ on the other hand, means adding different data points together to check for cause and effect.
What is the importance of information governance in healthcare?
The importance of information governance is linked to the advantages derived from following regulatory frameworks. Organizations benefit in the following manner-
- Improving security of information obtained
- Better accuracy – leading to better interactions with stakeholders and within the organization
- There is better long-term care for patients with chronic conditions and improved quality of patient care
Information governance helps mitigate the risk of financial outcomes getting affected due to wrong data entry.
Example of information governance
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a practical example of Information Governance. Healthcare institutions have strict requirements to acquire (lawfully) and protect patient information. Furthermore, the penalties are rigorous for faulty compliance.
What are the three information governance principles?
The three main information governance principles include: Transparency, Integrity, and Protection.
FileCloud offers many options that help construct a HIPAA-compliant audit trail; we are GDPR compliant and follow information governance principles at the core.
Learn more about HIPAA file sharing.