Differential Chart Access
Differential Chart Access
The HIPAA Privacy Rule governs the extent to which providers must safeguard a patient’s privacy. A major tenet of those regulations is that only individuals who absolutely need access to a particular client’s record should have it. In HIPAA parlance, this principle is known as the Minimum Necessary requirement (learn more about the HIPAA Privacy Rule).
Other EHR software programs can only limit access based on a staff member’s overall role in the agency. For example, an administrator might be able to say, “All front office staff can have permission to modify demographic information, but they can’t gain access to patient notes.” But what if a certain administrative assistant needs access to some other parts of the record for clients in a particular subspecialty clinic? The average EHR won’t let you manage those contingencies.
You Set the Standards, You Create the Controls
In typical fashion, ClinicTracker exceeds most programs in letting managers tailor features to exacting criteria. Its superiority derives from limiting access based on specific client characteristics, not general staff roles. With ClinicTracker, that same administrator can tell the program, “This staff member can have read-only access to clients in the Chemical Dependence unit who are in the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Group” and “Another staff member can have full access to the chart, but only for patients assigned to her caseload.”
With ClinicTracker you can make sure that only the right people with the right privileges at the right times can gain access to a client’s personal data. You will always know you’re able to comply with the Minimum Necessary requirement.
- Limit or grant access to client records based on patient group and/or place of service
- Grant a particular clinician permission to see only the patients that have been assigned to him or her
- Specify each users’ access level to various areas of the client record
ClinicTracker can enforce all of the HIPAA security requirements, even the more complex sub-rules that force differential access based on multiple patient criteria.