It is obvious that today, the health care industry would not exist without the use of information systems and computers.  This is an advancement that anyone who has ever been a patient should be glad of.  Computers allow for the storage of limitless amounts of information for nearly infinite amounts of time.  Data can be sorted instantly into different categories and be much more easily retrieved and utilized where needed.  Patients can be treated more effectively and at a lower cost thanks to the creation of standards and codes that are becoming universally accepted.  There is one aspect, however, that lacks a positive response from those who have completed their educations from health care information systems schools, and that is the lack of security and confidentiality of patients' record.

This is the case because most hospitals set their focus on caring for and treating patients.  In the process of completing their life-saving operations, health care professionals can forget to adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 2003.  This requires that electronically protected health information must be encrypted if it is stored on open networks or portable devices.  The mistakes that are made in this regard can be prevented if health care professionals are required to complete an education from health care information systems schools.

One of the biggest problems with the confidential information of patients is that health care workers are often not well equipped with the know-how to deal with breaches of security if they do occur.  This is one part of the education taught at health care information systems schools to prevent this from being a problem in the future.  Besides, with a heightened look at the importance of not being careless in the encryption of patients' information, breaches of security will be less likely to occur in the first place.

The problem with health care workers that have been in employment since before the passing of the Act in 2003 is that they do not put breaches of security at a high priority when compared to other urgent hospital issues.  Many organizations do not even know how to manage their own computer assets, something that will certainly change as the on-coming professionals are educated at health care information systems schools.  Here, the integration of software, applications, and health care are taught as one.  Thus information systems in health care can be maintained and managed professionally.

Consider a hospital in your mind.  There is not a single room in a hospital that does not have a computer and monitor to allow practitioners to record information and communicate with one another.  Unless all works are knowledgeable because they have attended health care information systems schools, the information here will not be protected or secure enough to comply with the Act.  Since the biggest security threat from lost data is when identity thieves get their hands on patients' personal information, it is clear that the lack of security situation must be changed, a change that can be facilitated by health care information systems schools.