March 30, 2016

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It already has. And, if you ever wondered why security experts stress not to open links or attachments in unfamiliar emails, this is the reason!

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, a 434-bed private hospital in Los Angeles, recently paid $17K to a hacker who seized control of the hospital’s computer system and returned access only in exchange for the ransom. As the name implies, ransomware locks a network by encrypting files and the perpetrator extorts a victim to obtain the decryption key.

How did it happen?

The attack likely resulted when a hospital staffer clicked a malicious link or attachment that spread the malware throughout the network despite the presence of sophisticated malware controls. Most cyberattacks start when a person opens an email link or attachment from someone they don’t know.

Healthcare at risk

While cyberattacks on hospitals are increasingly common, ransom attacks are relatively rare. But, that might be changing:

  • Ransomware attacks have occurred recently at health care facilities in Texas and Germany
  • The FBI says there has been a “definite uptick” in ransomware use by cybercriminals
  • McAfee Labs predicts ransomware attacks will increase in 2016

What can employees do?

Employees account for 98 percent of all data breaches in the enterprise. That means employee behavior influences our security profile more than any hardware or software tools. What is the best defense against cyberattacks? Do not click unknown links or attachments. Click here to read more about how to help protect Texas Children’s from cyberattacks!

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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a consumer alert for email schemes after noting a 400 percent surge in phishing and malware incidents so far in the 2016 tax season. The emails or texts are designed to trick taxpayers into thinking they are official communications from the IRS or others in the tax industry, including tax software companies. It is critical to be wary of email from unknown sources. The most sophisticated security technology can be defeated if a user clicks the wrong link. Click here (guaranteed safe link!) to find out what to expect and how to deter phishing scams.

IRS Top Tax Season Scams

  • Pose as a trusted person or organization
  • Hack an email account and send mass emails under another person’s name
  • Pose as a bank, credit card issuer, tax software firm or government agency
  • Create websites that appear legitimate but contain phony log-in pages

IRS reported tax scams
Jan-Feb          Incidents
2016                 1,389
2015                    564

July 15, 2014

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For the second year in a row, Texas Children’s has received the “Most Wired” designation for outstanding health care-based technology from Hospitals & Health Network Magazine – the flagship publication of the American Hospital Association.

“Earning Most Wired designation for two consecutive years is a tribute to the hard work of Information Services and our many partners at Texas Children’s,” said Myra Davis, senior vice president of Information Services (IS). “It also reflects the foresight of the administration to recognize the role innovative technology can play in supporting world-class patient care.”

Now in its 16th year, the Most Wired Survey polls hospitals and health systems nationwide regarding their IT initiatives. Hospitals that lead the way in technological achievement receive Most Wired designation. Surveys completed in 2014 represent more than 30 percent of all U.S. hospitals.

In 2013, Texas Children’s received its first-ever Most Wired recognition, as well as a Most Wired Innovator Award for innovative use of information technology for the Voalte Rapid Communication Project.

New Most Wired standards
Most Wired adopted a new, more-stringent analytic structure for the survey this year. Rather than technology adoption, recognition for IT excellence among hospitals and health systems is now based more on an organization’s meaningful use based on federal requirements for certified electronic health records.

“Hospital leaders should be commended for the hard work they’ve done under an unrealistic time frame,” states Russell P. Branzell, president and CEO of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).

The Information Services team will receive the award in San Diego later this month at the 2014 Health Forum and AHA Leadership Summit, where senior executives from the nation’s leading hospitals and health systems will discuss the critical issues facing their organizations and network to find the solutions they need to be more successful.

June 3, 2014

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Information Services (IS) will introduce several customer improvements this month to simplify service requests, solve problems more quickly and track service better.

“Information Services continually works to assess the effectiveness of our customer services, and we are aware our Service Desk customer care does not currently meet our standards or our customers’ needs,” said Myra Davis, senior vice president of IS.

Within the next few weeks, IS will implement several service enhancements, including improved staff, self-service options and a new support portal that allows customers to:

  • Report an issue or submit a request to IS online.
  • Check the status of any open service ticket previously submitted (with or without the ticket number).
  • Add comments to your ticket for the service analyst working on your issue.
  • Search articles and answers to common questions to help quickly resolve issues that may not need a service analyst.

How will this affect me?
Davis said customer improvements will provide a better, more efficient experience for all.

“We have renovated our customer service model to introduce enhancements like a new customer portal for online status updates and staffing improvements to reduce wait times,” she said. “New self-service options will help resolve issues without having to call the IS Service Desk. Everything is designed to improve the customer experiences of employees by helping our staff be more efficient.”

What employees need to do
The new customer support portal will pull contact information from each employee’s Connect Profile. Click here to check your Connect profile to make sure all of your contact information is current.

Questions?
Information Services is dedicated to providing a secure, reliable technology environment. If you have questions about IS customer service improvements, please call the IS Service Desk at Ext. 4-3512 (external 832-824-3512).

April 8, 2014

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On March 27, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to delay the implementation of the ICD-10 coding system for hospitals and providers – which was to replace the current ICD-9 coding system – by one year. Originally, all hospitals and providers were to have implemented ICD-10 by October 2014. The new deadline for implementing ICD-10 is October 2015.

The Senate passed the legislation on April 1, and the bill was signed into law April 2. The law is called the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 and is effective immediately.

How Does This Affect Texas Children’s?

The hospital has been working on its education plan for providers for more than a year. The education component will move forward as planned.

Providers still can access the education modules that explain how the new coding system will affect their specialties, beginning this month.

What does change is the deadline to complete the education courses. That deadline has been extended to July 2015.

In the meantime, the hospital will continue to train its billing staff on the ICD-10 system, and will continue to make system upgrades to the hospital’s electronic health record (EHR). Those upgrades ensure that our EHR is compatible with the ICD-10 system.

By continuing with our efforts to make the switch to ICD-10, the transition will be that much easier come next October.

March 11, 2014

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When the American Medical Association (AMA) petitioned the government on February 12 to delay the start of ICD-10 many wondered what would happen. What will happen at Texas Children’s is pretty clear – the conversion to ICD-10 will go live October 1.

“Here at Texas Children’s, we started working on this process more than a year ago,” said Myra Davis, senior vice president of Information Services. “We’re making the necessary changes to our systems, as well as implementing an education program for providers and coding staff that will make the transition as smooth as possible.”

On October 1, Texas Children’s and health care organizations nationwide will transition to ICD-10, the coding system used to report and code diagnoses, injuries, impairments and other health problems and their manifestations. It will replace ICD-9, the current coding system used at Texas Children’s.

Everyone has acknowledged that implementing a new coding system won’t be easy. In fact, the AMA estimates that even small physician practices can expect to spend between $57,000 and $226,000 to get ready for the change. But everyone agrees that the result will be better data for providers, patients and researchers.

While the AMA continues to seek a repeal of ICD-10, it nonetheless remains a federal mandate and physicians are urged to prepare for the October 1, 2014 compliance deadline.

On February 27, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said that nothing has changed with the ICD-10 deadline. Marilyn Tavenners spoke to a group of IT professionals at a national conference when she made that announcement.

“There are no more delays, and the system will go live on October 1,” Tavenner said. “We’ve delayed this several times, and it’s time to move on.”

A quick timeline

In 2008, the U.S. government agreed that America should join with other nations in implementing ICD-10. They originally set October 1, 2013, as the deadline, but that was extended to 2014. The new codes will impact the hospital’s electronic medical record (EMR) and affect codes for both diagnoses and procedures. All told, the number of diagnosis codes will increase from 14,000 to 69,000, while the number of procedure codes will grow from 14,000 to 71,000.

The last time the U.S. changed its national coding system was in 1979. That’s when hospitals and providers moved from ICD-8 to ICD-9. People who favor the next move to ICD-10 point out that when ICD-9 first was implemented, people still could smoke in hospitals.

“Medicine has evolved so much, it only makes sense to update our systems,” Davis said. “Think of how many new treatments have been developed in the last 25 years. The old code set wasn’t designed to capture those innovations, while the new code set better describes what’s happening in medicine today.”

In the end, Texas Children’s is committed to meeting the October 1 deadline to implement ICD-10, no matter what the chatter is in the industry.

For more information
ICD-10 Fact Sheet
ICD-10 Industry Updates
ICD-10 Myths and Facts

February 25, 2014

Most Texas Children’s Hospital telephone service at all locations will be unavailable from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday, March 2, for maintenance.

What does this mean to you?

  • Red emergency phones will be available, and the hospital’s Disaster Routing Service will be activated.
  • Other available communication services include:
    • Beeper paging through 713-605-8989
    • Hospital page operator “0” can be dialed from any red phone to reach the page operator
    • IRM paging system will be available through page operators for normal hospital groups such as Inpatient Code Team, Transport Team, CARLA Teams and Pyros
    • Voalte-to-Voalte phone communication
  • No other phone-related services, including Spectralink, will be available until maintenance is completed.

What should you do?

  • All departments should implement standard downtime procedures during this outage.
  • If your SpectraLink handset displays “system unavailable” or “no PBX” after service resumes, turn the phone off and back on, and the error will clear.
  • Call Center Agents will have to log back into the telephone after service is restored to receive calls.

Questions?
Information Services is dedicated to providing a secure, reliable technology environment, and will provide the following support resources:

  • Before the outage – call the IS Service Desk at Ext. 4-3512
  • During the outage – call the IS Service Desk from a red emergency phone by dialing Ext. 5332.