Who owns your data? What does it even mean to “own” your data? Who else could own your data, and what would they want with it?
These may seem like basic questions, but as they pertain to the veterinary groups, how you answer them could determine the levels of risk to patient safety, regulatory compliance, revenue loss, and more, in your organization.
In this article, we will define data ownership, explore scenarios in which your data may be at risk, and identify the key components of a practice management system that ensures your data remains protected and under your control.
What is data ownership?
First, let’s consider the variety of data your organization is likely to collect, process, and leverage for insight and analysis. Much of that data originates at the clinic level and is generated through each clinic’s practice management system. The information includes, but is not limited to:
- Patient information
- Client information
- Appointment records
- Billing and invoice data
- Medication and treatment records
- Laboratory and imaging results
- Inventory management
- Client communications
- Practice performance reports
- Staff scheduling
With this information available, a clinic may more effectively streamline operations and deliver patient care. At the corporate level, the data can offer a range of valuable insights, such as patient population trends, medication and treatment efficacy, supply costs, revenue performance, and more.
Owning all of this data means maintaining control, responsibility, and authority over the information generated by the practice management system (or systems) in your organization. Let’s break down the these three aspects of data ownership:
Control: You can access, manage, and manipulate the data as needed. Control also means determining who can access your data, imposing your own governance policies, and having full oversight on data privacy and security regulations.
Responsibility: You are accountable for all the ways your data is used, stored, and processed. This means it’s up to you to safeguard sensitive information, maintain its integrity, and make sure that it is used ethically and lawfully.
Authority: You make all decisions for your data, including how it is stored, analyzed, and shared. Part of that authority is establishing protocols for data storage, usage, and frameworks for analysis and interpretation.
When you embrace the role of data owner, you’re on a path toward stronger decision-making, streamlined operations, better client experiences, and innovations in animal health.
Risky scenarios for your data
But there are many situations in which control, responsibility, and authority over your data are challenged. As the following example scenarios illustrate, data ownership can be compromised by unreliable technology vendors, poor security standards, or simply because multiple practice management systems lead to fragmented information.
Risky scenario #1: Disparate data
You’ve decided it’s time to switch all of your clinics over to a single, unified practice management system, but many of those clinics are under contract with a vendor that stores their data in a proprietary format and does not offer support for data migration. Aside from the time and expense of data retrieval and reformatting, you risk data loss or disruption in the transition.
Risky scenario #2: Supplier price-gouging
You adopt practice management software provided by a large veterinary vendor that also serves as your main supplier of inventory or lab equipment. When one vendor controls 50% of your organization’s external spend, they can use your data to change the prices of products based on your performance.
Risky scenario #3: Data security breach
Several of your clinics operate with server-based practice management software, meaning that all of your data resides on external servers. Because of insufficient security practices, hackers penetrate one of the servers, compromising and exposing personally identifiable information, which opens you up to liability.
Risky scenario #4: Patient safety
Without a unified practice management system, patient data runs the risk of fragmentation and inconsistencies if, for example, a patient visits more than one of your locations for treatment. This can result in anything from medication errors to duplicate procedures to delayed diagnoses due to incomplete information.
How should a practice management system treat your data?
Of the many considerations that consolidators must make in their selection of a practice management system, arguably the most critical revolve around that solution provider’s treatment of data.
Here are four criteria that we believe are essential in your software decision-making process:
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Vendor has no ulterior motives or uses for your data
Obtain a written guarantee that the provider will not sell your data to third-party data aggregators without your authorization. This prevents your data from being used for commercial or research purposes.
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Vendor won’t use your data to manipulate pricing
As described in the above Risky Scenario #2, make sure that the provider doesn’t prey on your inventory data to determine pricing of other products and services they may offer.
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Vendor should have the highest security standards available
Ask for their data security credentials. For example: ISO/IEC 27001 certification, which is the international standard for information security and privacy. Check for access controls, such as multi-factor authentication, to ensure unauthorized people cannot access the system. Ask for the executive summary of their latest penetration testing report.
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Vendor should operate in the cloud
Cloud-based software (versus a system that uses on-premise servers for data storage) offers the best safeguards for your organization’s data. But find out which cloud provider (e.g. Amazon Web Services) the vendor uses. Understand encryption standards and data backup/recovery protocols.
Key Takeaways
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Data ownership is essential – Maintaining control, responsibility, and authority over your practice’s data ensures better decision-making, operational efficiency, and patient care.
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Your data is at risk in multiple ways – Challenges such as vendor lock-in, security breaches, price manipulation, and fragmented information can compromise your ability to fully own and utilize your data.
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Choosing the right practice management system is critical – Your vendor should not have ulterior motives, should uphold strict security standards, and should provide a cloud-based solution that prioritizes data integrity and accessibility.
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Demand transparency and protection – Secure written guarantees from your software provider to prevent unauthorized data usage, ensure fair pricing, and protect against security vulnerabilities.
Take full ownership of your data with Provet Cloud
Schedule a demo today to learn more about how you can turn your organization's data into valuable insights – and more.
