Remote Work from Home Challenges for Healthcare Entities

Most healthcare entities are HIPAA covered entities: HIPAA covered entities must safeguard the confidentiality, privacy, and security of Protected Health Information (PHI).

Confidentiality of PHI: It seems to be a challenge for HIPAA covered entities to safeguard PHI within their own workplaces, already: Even while educating, training and relying on their employees to help safeguarding PHI within the work environment;

while overcoming challenges with mitigating risks for incidental disclosures, and trusting their employees to keep patient health information confidential at the workplace and when they go home, after work.

Privacy of PHI: Is an actual private office, available at home for the employee to work in? Will they actually work in the private office, or anywhere that is comfortable in their home?(Remember, the employees are at home, their home). What if they don't work in their private home office, how would the HIPAA covered entities even know about that? There are so many uncertainties; rather, should I call them risks?

Threats: Other people that live in, or come to the employees' homes may constitute a threat to the privacy and security of PHI.

Security of PHI: Work devices (laptops, cellphones, tablets, etc...) are at greater risks from being accessed or compromised by unauthorized users in the home.

(Side notes: Personally, I think working from home, in general, is not a healthy practice.) (Work and home do not go together) (It's either a workspace or a home) (Keep your work away from home, if you want your home to remain a home.)