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MEMBER PROFILE ◁Member “Settles Down” into Hectic Privacy Officer RoleOver her 38 years in the industry, Barbara Beckett, RHIT,has held just about every HIM position imaginable—and inevery place. From tumor registrar, to staff services analyst, toHIM director, she’s worked all over the country in places likeCalifornia, Colorado, and even internationally in Saudi Arabia.Always on the hunt for the next opportunity, Beckett has workedin prisons, government agencies, and large healthcare facilities.But it wasn’t until her current privacy officer position camealong that Beckett decided to professionally “settle down” andserve long-term in one HIM role. Call it a perfect match—a jobthat is so diverse it feels like a different role each day.For the last 10 years Beckett has acted as the chief privacyofficer, ethics, and compliance coordinator at St. Luke’s Hospitalof Kansas City. It is a role where she must utilize her entirearsenal of past HIM experience, and even learn new skills as themarch of technology threatens to trample patient privacy rights.Federal regulation changes like the HITECH Act have increaseda privacy officer’s responsibilities for protecting patientinformation—and heighted the penalties that can be incurred ifthey fail. It is an exciting and challenging time to be in privacy,she noted.Managing the Changing Privacy LandscapeBeckett has enjoyed the ever changing world of privacy, startingin the role on the ground floor in the first days of HIPAA andeventually moving into the chief privacy officer role overseeing9,100 employees and regional privacy officers located in St.Luke’s 11 hospital facilities. “I like the unscheduled dailychallenges the most—no two days are alike,” Beckett said. “Younever know what is going to happen, and I work best that waywhen there is a big variety of tasks and issues to do.”Beckett works with a vast array of healthcare stakeholders inher role, from government officials, attorneys, and CEOs fromother healthcare organizations to auditors, tech developers andeven local law enforcement. Investigations to root out unethicalbehavior and unauthorized access breaches are a routine andenjoyable part of Beckett’s job, she said. She’s even workedofficially with local police to root out prescription fraud issues.“I love investigating, putting on my little Sherlock Holmes hatthen going out and doing my thing to resolve issues,” she said.The privacy profession has been swept up in a whirlwind ofregulation changes, enforcement modifications, and ever-newthreats from advancing technology. But Beckett has thrivedin the chaos, she says. “How quickly everything is changing isjust mindboggling sometimes. You just get into one mode andsuddenly here is a revision of something new,” she says.Protecting Patient PrivacySince helping develop the privacy program in the early 2000s,Beckett says new technology has become the biggest threat topatient privacy. Some healthcare professionals won’t think twiceabout asking for lab results via text or using Web-connectedcamera phones and other mobile devices to snap photos ofpatients. Educationon privacy policiesand sensibilities area key weapon, oneBeckett employsthrough her annualtraining and evertightening policyenforcement.Ironically,technology isalso the best toolBeckett and herstaff has to combatprivacy invasion.Internal privacybreaches accountfor the majority ofincidents in nearlyall facilities—staffers snooping Barbara Beckett, RHITin neighbors’, familymembers’, or acquaintances’ medical records to satisfy eithercuriosity or more sinister plans. In addition to reminding staffthat state’s Attorneys General now have the ability to heavilyprosecute and fine offenders, St. Luke’s has employed technologyto monitor staff record accesses and fire up algorithm-basedflares when an access seems amiss.A new access monitoring system at St. Luke’s can tell if staff isaccessing the medical records of neighbors, relatives, or certaingroups of people. “You can usually tell by the action involved ifit is work related or not, and if there is a question we go to themanager involved (and investigate),” Beckett said. For example,if a staffer had viewed the records of five people named Smith,a flare would alert Beckett to investigate. Open up a record ofa patient that lives on your block—another flare. “The moreautomated we can get, technology can be a big plus for us tohelp do some of these (audits) that are greatly needed.”Technological help aside, Beckett also receives more organicsupport from various networks of privacy officers and HIMprofessionals. The Kansas City Compliance Privacy Forum meetsquarterly and provides a chance for Beckett and others to bounceideas and concerns off other professionals. She’s also heavilyactive in the profession’s state and national associations, servingas president of the Missouri Health Information ManagementAssociation and as a member of the AHIMA Privacy and SecurityPractice Council. After the years of working in different HIMroles and places, Beckett hopes to retire a privacy officer. Backin the comfort of her Midwestern roots in Kansas City, she loveshow the privacy officer role contains just as much responsibilityas a department director without the burden of budgeting andemployee management drama. “I have found my niche, and I justlove this field,” she said. vAHIMA ADVANTAGE PAGE ◁ 5