Compliance is supply chain's business too: Building a more secure supply chain

Abstract

Healthcare organisations rely on medical suppliers to deliver products that are critical to safe and effective patient care. But while suppliers are instrumental to care delivery, they can also be a source of risk. This paper examines ways in which supplier relationships can threaten patient privacy and safety, as well as impact a provider's accreditation status and revenues. We also present statistics showing how these threats are growing as healthcare becomes more digital. From there, we describe how healthcare organisations can protect themselves, their staff and their patients by building compliance into their supply chain processes. Readers will gain knowledge about:
Industry regulations that require healthcare organisations to manage their supplier relationships, and the penalties for non-compliance;
how patient data has become more vulnerable to attacks as a growing number of healthcare organisations transition to interoperable electronic health records (EHRs), including recent statistics on healthcare industry data breaches;
the significant risk that business associates can present to patient privacy and the responsibility of healthcare organisations to mitigate this risk; and
seven steps that healthcare organisations can take to integrate compliance into their supply chain processes to protect patient privacy, accreditation status and revenues