Monitor IT Infrastructure Continuously and Escalate All The Incidents BHA FPX 4020 Assessment 3 Data Collection and Analysis

Analyzing Data Relative to Internal and External Benchmarks

Among considerations in evaluating data loss at Emory University Medical Center as well as discussing the prospects for minimization, there is a critical step of comparing figures with internal and external references. Organizations end up using internal benchmarks because they are specific to the company; thus, it is possible to compare the current performance to previous performance or other predetermined parameters (Algarni et al. , 2021).

The suggested performance standard concerning the mitigation of data breaches is the use of industry security best practices, with a goal of achieving at least a 50% reduction in breaches within six months, according to the experts (Algarni et al. , 2021). For instance, if in the past EUMC was facing in average 10 data breaches per year the internal benchmark of measures to achieve could be 50% less in six months.

However, in the light of data available in A2 with regards to breach reduction attempts by EUMC, it is evident that the firm has been only able to reduce the breach level up to 30% therefore creating the impression of a performance inequality when compared against internal benchmarks (Algarni et al. , 2021).

The internal benchmark highlights the need to strengthen measures of data protection as a way of combating these vices, so as to protect the patient information as well as the organizational integrity. For this reason, EUMC can use the internal benchmark to monitor the progress in the accomplishment of goals on the reduction of data breaches as well as the general improvement of data security (Campbell et al. , 2023).

On the other hand, External Controls serve to offer more general information about the performance by comparing to the designated industry standards or other well-known models.

The external benchmark that will be applied for EUMC is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule. The reason for selecting this external benchmark is based on the fact that the organization has been seeking to achieve national accreditation seeking to protect patients’ PHI.

The safeguarding of patient’s information under HIPAA should be a mandatory aspect of any healthcare facility due to the legal sanctions that come with HIPAA noncompliance (Dagher et al. , 2019). Thus, when compliance standards are integrated with data security practices, the EUMC has a better chance to protect sensitive information, increase patients’.

The HIPAA Security Rule has set mechanism that provides vast rules to protect the PHI and these rules include the Administrative, Physical, and Technical rules. Staying with these requirements helps to meet legal and regulatory practices and also minimize risk to patient data and general patient confidence.

Also, compliance with HIPAA standards enhances the healthcare entities’ data sharing and interoperability, which is crucial for efficient and unified patient care (Kush et al. , 2020). Hence, there is a necessity for EUMC to ensure that their data security enforcement meets HIPAA policies to ensure that patient information is protected as required by the law and to minimize on the possibility of a break-in as much as possible.

When comparing Emory University Medical Center’s data breaches with other similar organizations, competitors, or the Insurance industry, external reference standards consist of Industry standards and benchmarks constitute the external references selected for use in assessment.

Such standards can provide Emory with concepts on how its competitors and counterparts manage their data and protect them, thus helping Emory to evaluate its performance, recognize shortcomings, and its policies and procedures in a manner most effective to ensure the augmentation of data security throughout the health care organization.