Electronic Health Reporter

In 2012 the Ponemon Institute calculated that the average economic impact of data breaches for healthcare organizations was $2.4 million, a 20 percent increase since it first calculated this cost in 2010. These costs continue to rise and the final HIPAA omnibus ruling further solidifies data security as a high priority. To help hospitals and health systems secure communications and avoid costly data breaches, PerfectServe – the intelligent, unified clinical communications platform company – introduces automatic electronic patient health information (ePHI) filtering capabilities to its industry-leading healthcare communications solutions.

“While some organizations emphasize the importance of secure text messaging among clinical staff, we understand that ePHI exists in many other forms of communication, often more frequently than it does in mobile device-to-device text messaging alone,” said Terry Edwards, president and chief executive officer of PerfectServe. “Because of this, we collaborate with our customers in looking beyond claimed ‘HIPPA-compliant applications’ to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment where we establish and implement an effective policy that secures all communication modalities.”

During any single communication transaction between a nurse and doctor or patient and doctor there are several points of risk that can lead to a security breach. PerfectServe ePHI filtering capabilities enable healthcare providers to implement processes that automatically filter ePHI from the body of messages sent to non-secure mobile devices (i.e. pagers, email and SMS text). PerfectServe is the first and only vendor who can consolidate all ePHI transmitted to clinicians on a common, secure, unified communications platform.

“We recognize that there is no ‘one size fits all’ security approach for clinical communications,” said Kristi Syling, compliance officer at PerfectServe. “We’ve designed our platform to be powerful enough to meet even the most stringent security requirements of healthcare providers, yet flexible enough to accommodate their need to establish policies that balance security with patient safety and other concerns.”

PerfectServe’s industry-leading security controls and applications allow healthcare organizations to establish and then effectively implement policies regarding the transmission of ePHI across all care settings. By equipping every communications technology – voice, web, mobile, text, pager and more – with tools that automatically filter ePHI, PerfectServe allows organizations to implement an effective HIPAA-compliance risk-management strategy.

To learn more about these and more capabilities of PerfectServe’s integrated platform through customer testimonials and live demonstrations, visit the PerfectServe team at HIMSS14 booth #5293.

About PerfectServe

PerfectServe is a single, intelligent, unified communications platform that connects clinicians across the care continuum. The company helps providers improve patient outcomes and operational efficiency by removing communications process variability and speeding contact cycle times between clinicians. More than 30,000 physicians in organizations such as Advocate Healthcare, Ascension Health, MemorialCare, the WellStar Health System, Hoag, the St. Joseph Health System and Orlando Health rely on PerfectServe to enable faster interventions, increase physician alignment and satisfaction, provide nurses more time for direct patient care and reduce HIPAA-compliance risk. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., PerfectServe was incorporated in 2000.