Vital Signs

A business continuity plan (BCP) documents how an organization will keep its essential functions running during and after a serious disruption. This post explains how BCPs differ from disaster recovery and incident response plans, what HIPAA and CMS require, how recovery objectives are set, and how downtime procedures keep nurses delivering safe care.

An advance directive is a legal document in which a person states health care wishes or names a decision-maker in case they become unable to decide for themselves. This post explains the main types of advance directives, how they differ from POLST forms and code status orders, what federal rules require of hospitals, and how EHRs make those wishes findable.

A workflow is the sequence of tasks, events, and handoffs people follow to get work done. This post explains sequential and parallel workflows, how health IT teams map current and future states, why workarounds appear when technology does not fit the work, and how nurses help design workflows that are safe and efficient.

Single sign-on (SSO) lets a user log in once and reach multiple applications without entering credentials again for each one. This post explains how SSO works, why hospitals pair it with badge tap at shared workstations, the security tradeoffs of a single key, and how SSO affects nurses’ time and workflow.

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) uses connected devices to collect health data from patients at home and send it securely to clinicians for review and action. This post explains how RPM programs work, what research and federal oversight show, how RPM differs from other telehealth services, and why nurses are central to making it safe and useful.

MACRA, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, replaced Medicare’s old physician payment formula with the Quality Payment Program, which pays eligible clinicians through MIPS or Advanced Alternative Payment Models. This post explains how the program works, how it connects to EHR data and Promoting Interoperability, and what it means for nurses and advanced practice nurses.

An interface engine is software that receives messages from one system, translates them into the format another system expects, and routes them to the right destinations. This post explains how interface engines work, why hospitals use a hub-and-spoke design, how engines relate to HL7, FHIR, and APIs, and how interfaces show up in nursing workflow.

DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is the international standard for formatting, storing, and exchanging medical images and related information. This post explains how DICOM files and services work, how DICOMweb brings imaging to modern web applications, where DICOM fits with PACS, HL7, and IHE, and why image identity matters to nurses.

A business associate agreement (BAA) is the HIPAA-required contract between a covered entity and a vendor or partner that handles protected health information on its behalf. This post explains who counts as a business associate, what a BAA must include, how cloud services and subcontractors fit in, and why BAAs matter for nurses using apps and new tools.

An audit trail is the chronological record of who accessed, created, changed, printed, or deleted information in a system, and when. This post explains what EHR audit trails capture, what HIPAA and ONC certification require, how organizations use them to detect inappropriate access and defend the legal record, and what they mean for nurses.

Zero Trust is a cybersecurity strategy that assumes no user, device, application, or network connection is automatically trustworthy, even inside the organization’s own network. This post explains how NIST defines Zero Trust Architecture, why healthcare is adopting it, where it gets difficult, and how it changes daily work for nurses.

Social determinants of health (SDoH) are the conditions where people are born, live, learn, work, and age that shape their health. This post explains how SDoH differs from individual social needs, how SDoH data is screened, coded, and exchanged, how it supports value-based care, and how nurses gather and act on it.

Phishing is a social engineering attack that uses deceptive messages to trick people into revealing credentials or other sensitive information, or into running malicious software. This post explains the main forms of phishing, why healthcare is a frequent target, what research shows about click rates, and how organizations and nurses defend against it.

A medication error is any preventable event that could lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm. This post explains how medication errors are defined and categorized, where they occur in the medication-use process, how health IT helps prevent them, and how nurses serve as the last line of defense.

The HITECH Act is the 2009 federal law, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, that funded EHR adoption and strengthened HIPAA privacy and security. This post explains its two halves, incentive programs and privacy enforcement, how they changed healthcare IT, and what they mean for nurses today.

Data quality describes how well data serves its intended purpose, judged by qualities such as accuracy, completeness, consistency, and timeliness. This post explains how healthcare defines and measures data quality, why it matters for safety, analytics, and AI, and how nurses shape it at the point of documentation.

A care transition happens every time a patient moves between providers or care settings, such as from hospital to home or from the emergency department to a nursing facility. This post explains why transitions are risky, what interventions have shown, how health IT supports safer transitions, and the central role nurses play.

An application programming interface (API) is a defined way for one piece of software to request data or services from another. This post explains how APIs work, how FHIR-based APIs became a federal requirement in healthcare, what security risks they bring, and how they show up for patients and nurses.

Wearable technology is any device worn on the body that records and reports information about health behaviors and physiology. This post explains consumer versus medical-grade wearables, how FDA and HIPAA apply, how wearable data reaches clinicians, and what it means at the bedside.

SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) is a structured way for members of the care team to communicate about a patient’s condition. This post explains each part of SBAR, what the evidence shows, how it compares with other handoff tools, and how EHRs and secure messaging can support it.