Healthcare
Identity governance patterns for healthcare (HIPAA, EHR access).
This project applies governance to healthcare: controlling EHR access, meeting HIPAA, and handling clinicians, rotations and emergency access.
- Control EHR/clinical system access
- Meet HIPAA access controls
- Handle rotations and locums
- Emergency (break-glass) access review
Healthcare organisations face a demanding combination: strict regulation of patient-data access under HIPAA, and highly dynamic clinical staffing, rotations, locums, students, and emergency access. This project applies governance patterns tuned to those realities.
The goal
Control access to EHR and clinical systems in line with HIPAA, handle rotating and temporary clinical staff gracefully, and put break-glass emergency access under review.
How to build it
- Onboard EHR and clinical applications and govern their access.
- Model clinician roles that reflect rotations and specialties.
- Enforce HIPAA-aligned certifications of who can access patient data.
- Handle temporary and locum staff with time-bound access.
- Review emergency (break-glass) access after the fact.
Design considerations
Healthcare needs both tight control and clinical flexibility, access that is too rigid endangers patient care, access that is too loose endangers patient data. Design roles that accommodate rotations, make temporary access genuinely temporary, and treat break-glass access as legitimate but always reviewed, so clinicians can act in emergencies while every such access is later scrutinised.
Common pitfalls
- Rigid roles that cannot accommodate clinical rotation.
- Unreviewed break-glass access becoming standing access.
- Temporary clinical access that never expires.