By Dan Hounsell, Senior Editor

Healthcare requires that managers establish a data safety culture that permeates an organization and its operations. The operational needs of a facility, as well as interoperability regulations, often prioritize speed and accessibility of information over information security. Many facilities also use a common network that integrates multiple aspects of clinical systems, medical systems, business systems, physical security and building management.

A new Quick Safety advisory from The Joint Commission, Organization-wide cybersecurity: Creating a culture of defense, provides safety actions and resources to help managers and organizations prepare for and repel a cybersecurity event.

Building a culture of cybersecurity requires shared awareness of cybersecurity threats, including evaluating the types of threats that exist, and incorporation of preventive strategies at all levels of a health care organization. The advisory recommends safety actions for managers in creating a culture of cybersecurity:

• Create a culture of cybersecurity that is top down.
• Make sensitivity to cybersecurity threats and organizational preparedness part of the way the organization performs its work.
• Build a human firewall by requiring staff awareness of cybersecurity vulnerabilities at all levels of an organization.