ANOTHER FIRST FOR QUADRA!

GREEN PARK AWARDED FOR INFORMATION SECURITY

Quadra client - Green Park Healthcare Trust has become the first health service organisation in Northern Ireland to receive certification for the security of its information systems.

The Trust’s Information Technology (IT) Business Unit was presented with the ISO 9001:2000 and the BS 7799: 2002 awards, the latter a British standard designed for organisations with a need to protect the information they hold.

Quadra Management Consultancy helped guide Green Park Healthcare Trust through the BS 7799:2002 certification process. The process involved risk assessment, the formation of new policies and guidance, improvements to the infrastructure that carries the data and an emphasis on quality and security for staff of the IT Business Unit.

Every day in Green Park, staff from Musgrave Park Hospital and other Trust facilities complete almost 700,000 computer transactions and send around 30,000 emails, much of it confidential patient information.

Stephen Beattie, Manager of the Trust’s Information Technology Business Unit said,

“It’s a sign of the times that almost all patient information held in the health service is in an electronic format, therefore security and risk management are quickly becoming the foundation for building trust in our services.

Patients entrust an enormous amount of personal information to us, we ‘mind their business’, and therefore we have to safeguard it and ensure only authorised users have access to it. The BS7799 award helped us to thoroughly assess the risk to information in Green Park and to develop systems to reduce the danger of security breaches and systems failures”.

The certificates awarded to the Trust underline the fact that IT systems in Green Park are focused on two key areas; quality and the security of confidential information held on the Trust’s systems.

For further information contact:

Gráinne McCann

Public Relations Manager

Green Park Healthcare Trust

Tel: 028 9066 9501 ext 2061

Christine Watson

Marketing Manager

Quadra

Tel: 028 9042 3222

The benefits to Green Park of certificates for quality and security include:

• A reduced risk of security breaches

• Greater compliance with legislation eg the Data Protection Act

• Reduced costs and embarrassment associated with security breaches

• A structured system capable of reviewing information security risks and planning to control and eliminate such risks

• Achievement of an internationally recognised award and a boost to staff morale.

The UK government is committed to getting all government services online by 2005 with a requirement to secure information networks and protecting confidential customer data. The Department of Trade and Industry has recommended the BS 7799:2002 award to all public sector organisations.

The 1998 Data Protection Act states that companies are responsible for protecting customer data and are required to take “appropriate” security measures for both paper and electronic data.

Green Park Healthcare Trust was established in 1993. Its aim is to provide high quality, regional and local specialised services to patients across Northern Ireland. The Trust’s facilities include Forster Green Hospital, Musgrave Park Hospital, the Children’s Respite Care Unit at Belvoir Park Hospital and the Joss Cardwell Rehabilitation Centre.

Musgrave Park Hospital is one of Europe’s leading and largest elective orthopaedic and musculo-skeletal centres and one of only five facilities in the world to have a custom hip-manufacturing unit on site.

Visit Greenpark Healthcare Trust’s website www.greenpark.n-i.nhs.uk