Authors (including presenting author) :
Lam, WYC(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology, Caritas Medical Centre
Introduction :
In today's digital age, safeguarding patient data is more critical than ever and digital workplace is the trend in the Hospital Authority. The department has relied on essential physical records, including patient admission-discharge-transfer records, special case records, monthly incidence reports of pressure injuries, and hospital-acquired multi-drug resistant organisms (MDRO). While these physical documents are vital for patient care, they present significant challenges. These include not only environmental concerns and the necessity for physical storage space but also the risks of loss and breaches of sensitive patient information.
Personal data—such as patients’ names, telephone numbers, HKID card numbers, addresses, dates of birth, hospital numbers, and detailed diagnosis and treatment records—holds immense value. A breach of this data can lead to severe consequences, impacting a patient’s life significantly. Human factors, including negligence and inadequate staff training, often contribute to these breaches, highlighting the urgent need for effective management strategies.
To tackle these challenges, transitioning from physical to electronic records is essential. Utilizing cloud storage for electronic records offers a practical, efficient, secure, and eco-friendly solution. This transition will not only enhance data security but also improve accessibility and efficiency in patient care. While challenges such as cloud security management and training requirements must be addressed, the benefits of enhanced data security and sustainability make it a necessary step forward.
Objectives :
- To manage records containing patient’s personal data electronically
- To ensure efficient and systematic documentation in the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records
- To reduce the risk of patient’s personal data breach caused by improper handling of records due to human negligence
- To provide staff a user-friendly platform to access, process and record patient’s data
Methodology :
1. KWC IT contact point was contacted to create a HA TeamShare “CMC O&T Nursing” for our team in HA Digital Workplace.
2. When setting up the TeamShare, staff was assigned to be owner, moderators, members or guests. Their permissions were based on the operational needs.
3. To keep only necessary data, all physical documents or records were reviewed with stakeholders to decide which ones should be captured and registered based on their value.
4. After gathering feedbacks from users, electronic templates of various records were created to meet their needs.
5. Proper encryption measures were put in place to ensure all confidential data was encrypted and protected when stored in TeamShare.
6. The transition from physical to electronic records was communicated to all staff, and training sessions for using HA TeamShare were held.
7. All users were reminded to follow the Privacy Guidelines when retrieving and using the files.
8. Staff were given enough time to trial TeamShare for managing records, and adequate technical support was provided.
9. Regular backup copies of the records were made to ensure recovery to the latest state when needed. The backup records were securely stored on designated personal computers.
10. The Records Disposal Schedule was discussed with stakeholders to decide how long records should be kept and how they should be disposed of after the retention period.
11. A contingency plan for downtime of cloud storage system was created to allow the switching from electronic records to physical records without disrupting operations.
Result & Outcome :
The HA TeamShare for our team was established in September 2024. Ten physical records were transformed into electronic records one by one from September to December 2024. All staff were satisfied with this transformation. They agreed that the electronic records were easily and quickly accessible on personal computers or Clinical Management System (CMS) computers, easy to use, capable of co-editing with other users, updated in real time and allowed for communication among colleagues.
The cloud storage of electronic records in HA TeamShare is an invaluable model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.
Lastly, trainings should be provided to new staff and refresher training should be arranged for serving
staff on a regular basis to keep staff updated on new developments of records management within
the department.
