Managing sensitive data in healthcare today isn\u2019t just about securing protected health information (PHI). It\u2019s also about making all of your organization\u2019s data trustworthy, usable, and accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But with data coming in from so many different sources \u2014 disparate electronic health record (EHR) platforms, AI engines, imaging systems, patient-reported outcomes software, and even patient wearables \u2014 sharing and acting upon data is becoming even more challenging. That\u2019s where an enterprise information management (EIM) framework creates significant benefits, setting the foundation for organizing, exchanging, and governing data compliantly and efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What should an EIM framework include, and how can intuitive solutions like those offered by eFax Corporate\u00ae help healthcare organizations securely derive the highest value from their data? Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)<\/a> defines EIM as the policies and procedures healthcare organizations use to manage all the data they collect, from data creation and capture to processing, usage, storage, preservation, and disposition. EIM covers not just where and how data is kept but also how it is exchanged with other organizations or teams, how it is tracked over time, and how it is maintained for future use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n EIM includes more than PHI. It also encompasses any data used for research, analytics, or even operations, such as data inside enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM) databases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A robust EIM framework gives your organization a structured approach to managing all of your data by defining clear policies for data ownership, access, classification, and compliance. What might this look like in real life? Consider the scenario of a patient with diabetes who is admitted to a regional hospital after a fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By developing a framework that addresses these four concepts, organizations can arm their clinicians, providers, and patients with accurate, reliable data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organizations that set and follow clear guidelines for using patient data will experience multiple benefits, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Improved patient care. <\/strong>When clinicians can access complete patient data faster, regardless of where the data originated, they can make more accurate and timely clinical decisions that create better outcomes. An EIM framework eliminates the bottlenecks of siloed data, reducing the risk of missed diagnoses or delayed treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EIM in action: <\/em>In the Emergency Room, physicians treating a patient with chest pain can instantly access notes from a prior cardiac visit at another hospital, EKGs from a cardiologist\u2019s office, and medication records from a skilled nursing facility (SNF) to make a definitive diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Operational efficiency. <\/strong>A strong EIM strategy reduces redundant data entry and manual document retrieval so healthcare organizations can achieve their margin targets. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to bend the cost curve by maintaining our FTE levels, even with substantial growth on the horizon,\u201d Lynn Ansley, vice president of revenue cycle management at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., told Becker\u2019s Hospital Review<\/a>. \u201cThat has to be a very intentional effort that is based on the use of new technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n EIM in action:<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>Staff members at a multi-location physician group no longer spend time tracking down patient faxes. Instead, they use Clarity Clinical Documentation\u2122<\/a> to extract critical patient demographics from faxes and convert them into a structured Continuity of Care document. As a result, staff saves time, and the practice saves money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fewer compliance headaches. <\/strong>Healthcare organizations can avoid costly HIPAA violations with a framework that ensures data is handled securely and consistently enterprise-wide and only accessed by those who truly need the information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EIM in action:<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>Audit logs inside an Emergency Room show exactly who accessed a patient\u2019s behavioral health record and when, providing peace of mind during an OCR audit and helping the compliance team respond quickly and confidently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fewer handoff errors. <\/strong>When patients move between care settings, such as from hospital to SNF or from urgent care to primary care, their data must move with them. Without a seamless transfer of data, providers may end up with incomplete or outdated records, which can create delays, redundant testing, medication errors, or missed follow ups. EIM solves this problem by providing accurate, updated data during transitions of care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EIM in action:<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>A patient discharged from a hospital to a post-acute rehab facility arrives with discharge instructions, updated medication lists, and physical therapy orders already in the system, preventing any potential oversights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Increased trust with patients and families. <\/strong>Patients count on their healthcare providers to keep their data safe. EIM maintains this sacred trust by protecting their PHI and communicating it to their care teams safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EIM in action:<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>After visiting an Urgent Care center for a follow-up infection, a parent is relieved to know that their child\u2019s pediatrician already has access to the visit summary, lab results, and prescribed treatment their son needs, delivered securely via encrypted channels instead of through paper faxes or unsecured emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Add up the benefits and healthcare leaders soon discover that an EIM framework doesn\u2019t only improve their organization but also enhances patient outcomes throughout the continuum of care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The good news about creating an EIM framework is that you don\u2019t have to start from scratch. Proven standards exist that provide the structure and guidance healthcare organizations need to manage data securely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grounding your strategy in these established frameworks will create a sense of trust both inside and outside your organization, while giving you the tools to strengthen your EIM strategy over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a thoughtful approach and the right cloud-based solutions, you can move from planning to action and start constructing your ideal EIM framework. Follow these five steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Governance is the bedrock of an effective EIM strategy. Ensure strong governance from the start by establishing policies outlining who owns the data, who can access it, how it can be shared, and how long it\u2019s kept. Include key staff members from IT, operations, and clinical teams in these conversations, and communicate the final policies organization-wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolster your EIM strategy with solutions that will give IT teams appropriate visibility and control over data governance. eFax Corporate\u00ae<\/a>, for example, is a secure, cloud-based fax solution that integrates with EHRs, allowing healthcare organizations to send and receive faxes from their existing workflows. With eFax Corporate, IT teams can assign several levels of access to users from a centralized dashboard. Plus, eFax Corporate is ISO 27001-certified and PCI-DSS compliant, offering maximum protection for patient data and credit card holders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you have governance in place, you can begin to structure your data. Group information into categories, such as patient demographics, insurance details, and medication histories. Then, establish standard naming conventions and apply metadata so clinicians and staff can retrieve the data they need quickly and easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this stage, accuracy is paramount. Seek solutions that use leading-edge innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to reduce re-keying of information and put key pieces of data in standardized, interoperable formats. Clarity CD<\/a>, for example, autonomously extracts essential patient demographics from faxes with AI and NLP, then converts them into a structured Continuity of Care document, minimizing manual data entry and enhancing data integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You could argue that this step is the most important, considering that 2024 was the worst year ever<\/a> in terms of breached healthcare records. Furthermore, several major healthcare breaches have already occurred in 2025. Protect your organization and remain HIPAA compliant by encrypting data both within your organization\u2019s four walls and when it\u2019s shared externally. Bolster your data security posture by choosing solutions that follow proven security protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n eFax Corporate is fully HIPAA compliant, with AES 256-bit data encryption for data at rest, TLS (transport layer security) for faxes in transit, and features like a VPN for document transmission. eFax Corporate is also HITRUST CSF certified, aligning with the \u201cgold standard\u201d for healthcare compliance frameworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n eFax Unite\u2122<\/a>, a healthcare interoperability platform, streamlines clinical workflows and allows organizations to share patient data securely. With Direct Secure Messaging capabilities built on a DirectTrust framework, eFax Unite allows providers to safely communicate with statewide health information exchanges (HIEs) and referral networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Set-it-and-forget-it doesn\u2019t work in EIM. Instead, organizations must review and improve their frameworks continuously. Conduct regular audits to ensure that staff and clinicians follow policies appropriately. Track metrics around access, usage, and system performance so you can find potential problems early and remediate them. Ask frontline staff for feedback and remove any bottlenecks or data silos that cause inefficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you build out this part of your framework, look for solutions that make data tracking and auditing effortless. eFax Corporate assigns a unique patient identifier to each fax and provides a complete audit trail so users can track every sent and received fax. And with a robust archive, your organization can access and store all faxes for the entire life of your eFax Corporate account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last step can be the hardest, especially for organizations burdened with legacy technology that is costly to maintain and difficult to integrate. However, you can still reap the benefits of interoperability by adopting data exchange standards like HL7 or FHIR and selecting solutions with application programming interfaces (APIs) that can connect seamlessly to newer and older systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consensus\u2019s suite of solutions, including eFax Corporate, eFax Unite, and Clarity CD, supports full EHR\/HIE interoperability and uses APIs for ready-made integrations. eFax Unite can be directly integrated into PointClickCare<\/a>, allowing users to match documents to the associated clinician and port data directly into the correct resident chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, healthcare organizations using an EHR from athenahealth can leverage the eFax integration with athenaOne\u00ae<\/a>. This powerful integration delivers digital faxes, patient records, and users directly to the right departments within athenaOne, giving clinicians critical information faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the complexities of keeping PHI and other sensitive data secure, a patchwork approach to EIM won\u2019t cut it. Building a comprehensive EIM framework based on proven protocols and strict compliance ensures the proper classification, protection, and exchange of critical healthcare data. With a framework in place, you can then integrate cloud-based tools into your workflows to save clinicians and staff time and make stronger connections with patients. Request a demo<\/a> of Consensus Cloud Solutions\u2019 products today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Benefits of Enterprise Information Governance in Healthcare<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Standards to Include in an Enterprise Information Governance Framework<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A Step-by-Step Framework for Successful Enterprise Information Management<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 1: Define Your Governance Strategy and Policies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step 2: Classify and Organize Your Data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step 3: Implement Security and Compliance Controls<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step 4: Monitor and Improve Continuously<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step 5: Ensure Interoperability and Integration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Support Your EIM Framework With the Right Solutions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\n\t
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