HIPAA Q&A: Installing kiosks
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, January 9, 2012
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Q. We are planning to install wall-mounted kiosks in our skilled nursing facility to help nursing assistants document care. How does HIPAA apply?
A. These kiosks must be designed to protect patient information. If the kiosks contain computers that are used to document care in an electronic medical record, security requirements apply. Staff members should be required to log off when they leave a workstation, rather than leave the computer active. Computers should also be set to log off automatically after a brief period of inactivity.
If the nursing assistants use the kiosks for paper-based documentation, make sure patient identifiable information is not left at the kiosk. Kiosks may contain blank forms to be used for documentation, but staff must take completed documentation to the nurses’ station to be incorporated into the patient’s record.
Editor’s note: Mary D. Brandt, MBA, RHIA, CHE, CHPS, vice president of health information management at Scott & White Healthcare in Temple, TX, answered this question. She is a nationally recognized expert on patient privacy, information security, and regulatory compliance, and her publications provided some of the basis for HIPAA’s privacy regulations.
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