Talk about the steps involved in doing a health assessment

It doesn’t matter what industry you work in, from mining to education, information technology to catering, every business or work institution needs to carry out a health risk assessment. Here are a couple of guidelines on getting it done right:

1. Define the Scope of the Health Risk Assessment

There are several different methods that can be used to analyse risk and these depend on the scope of the analysis. Scope includes the vulnerability of the assessment’s confidentiality, and its potential risks.

2. Collect and Collate All Current Documentation

Any business or institution that needs to conduct a health risk assessment should collect information on where its electronic protected health information is stored and maintained. which could be at various sites.

3. Identify Any Potential Vulnerabilities or Threats

This is an essential step in working out what the level of risk is. Make a note of any threats which can come in the form of human threats, environmental threats or natural threats, as well as any vulnerabilities, and document them so they can be categorised and analysed.

4. Analyse the Organisation’s Security Measures

Whatever security measures are used to protect an organisation’s electronic protected health information should be noted. Measures in security can be classified into technical (that is, related to hardware and software in the network) and operations and management. This will allow you to see if you have enough safeguarding procedures implemented.

5. Determine the Chance and Impact of Threats

Any business or institution should thoroughly analyse each threat in order to determine the probability of a threat actually occurring. The easiest way to do this is to determine if the probability is low, medium or high, or to use a numeric index of sorts to rate the threat.

6. Determine the Chance and Impact of Threats

Any business or institution should thoroughly analyse each threat in order to determine the probability of a threat actually occurring. The easiest way to do this is to determine if the probability is low, medium or high, or to use a numeric index of sorts to rate the threat. For each risk level, develop a matrix of the likelihood of the threat occurring with the impact of the threat if it does. Make sure you have an action planned to follow in the event that the threat becomes a reality. Disseminate your plan to management so that the necessary steps can be taken as and when necessary.