HSCC Publication: Coordinated Healthcare Incident Response Plan

A new publication by the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council, titled “Coordinated Healthcare Incident Response Plan (CHIRP)”, provides a template incident response plan intended as a tool for organizations in the health and public health sector to develop their own tailored incident response plans. “The Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC) is a coalition of private-sector critical healthcare infrastructure entities organized to partner with and advise the government in the identification and mitigation of strategic threats and vulnerabilities facing the sector’s ability to deliver services and assets to the public.”

The template plan includes topics such as cybersecurity incident identification and the associated roles and responsibilities; incident response, including a governance team responsible for overseeing and coordinating efforts; communication strategy; containment strategy; and guidance for implementation of interim technical solutions to manage processes and the business prior to full system restoration.

With ever increasing cyber threats and the government’s continued focus on cybersecurity and providing tools to the health and public health sector to address those threats, health care providers must make HIPAA compliance a priority in their businesses. This includes having in place written policies and procedures, privacy and security officers who possess sufficient knowledge and training to serve in such roles, regular and meaningful staff training, and periodic security risk analyses to assess compliance with security requirements and identify the risks and vulnerabilities of systems that house patient information so that measures may be taken to address those risks and vulnerabilities.

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