Patton-Fuller Community Hospital
The Open System Interconnection model which is also commonly known as OSI Model has seven different layers (Bates, 2007). These different layers are essential for sending the bit of information among different systems which are attached in a network, and because of it, these different layers play an important part in the functioning of hospital as well as in the communication between the different departments. Diagram 1: Hospital structure from an IT network perspective Hence, keeping the OSI model structure in mind, the analysis of this Patton-fuller Community Hospital’s overall network connection has been conducted.
The network formation is the first thing to be analyzed keeping the processing of hospital in mind. Ethernet connection has been used to connect the whole hospital (Reinhold, 2007). The network used here, is basically a tree topological connection and Ethernet is in the centre, having a centralized connectivity (Lewin, 2008). All the different departments of hospital have been interconnected via Ethernet cable. Here, all the administrative departments are connected, using the CAT 1000 baseT cable, whereas, on the other hand the clinical departments are connected via the Ethernet, having a 1000 BaseF fiber cable.
The first layer in the OSI model, called physical layer manage these types of network cables used for connections between different departments. There are two Ethernet cables which are connected among themselves via a connector, known as the network bridge. This bridge is a network device, which is used to connect different departments. Hence, the hardware’s which are integrated in this network are not only the computer systems or any topology used, but also the cables used to connect these hardware’s to the network and switches, coolant as well as the ventilations.
These all hardware’s and the medium for interconnection are the part of first layer, called the physical layer. Due to various security reasons, we all know that data send from one network to another in the form of encryption. Hence these encrypted form of messages and the Health Insurance portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), strictly follow the protocols of the sixth layer of OSI model, called the presentation layer. Its main task is to encrypt all the data traveling in the network using a feature called desired algorithm.
In this case this algorithm is known as Advanced Encryption Standard. Various protocols like TLS and SSL are also used for smooth transferring or we can say traveling of encrypted data in a secured network. Health Insurance portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in applied in the hospital, its really very important and essential to keep the data of your patients in a private manner (Chaikind, 2004). Hence all the information of patients are converted in the encrypted format, so that they should remain confidential and private, and no one else can view other’s concealed data without his consent.
IT and Data Center department as well as the human resource department took care of all this privacy measurements. Diagram 2: Overview of logical network connections The presentation layer, in the OSI model, does the data transmission in the secured format. Various advance techniques like encryption and compression methods are used by this layer for the secured transmission of data. this layer also take care of the compatibility issues among different devices using different types of operating system like windows, Macintosh etc, which is a common issue, now a days.
Now, the third layer of the OSI model, which also commonly known as network model, comes into light. This layer deals with different internal as well as external IP addresses. When the IP address is from internal environment, a device called Network Address Translation (NAT) is used to change this internal address into external IP address, for outer, unsecured network. When attached in a network, every computer has a unique IP address, just like home address, for its recognition within the network. In today’s time, IP’s fourth version with 32 bit addressing is used while comparing to the future sixth version of IP addressing.
This latest version is used to avoid the data loss and also provide improved compatibility and address mechanism with efficient data transmission over the close network. This division is executed by the network administrator. Once the patients entered the hospital, data records are added in the database, which is the task of IT and Data Center. Now, as soon as the patient got admitted, its time for the Human Resource Department to take over the procedure. All the nurses and ward boys come under the supervision of this department only.
Their job is to take the patient to the treatment center which can be the ward, the ICU or the operation theater as per the patient’s sickness and condition. There is one more scenario as well, when the patient just arrived there for a regular check up, he or she should be guided to the doctors clinic where he examine the patients and then, if the sickness still continue, their proper healing is done. Here, all the important data of patients are needed to be stored in computer, by the concerned department which is fully furnished by the LAN as well as other facilities which helps in transferring of data to the appropriate record.
Patients ailments and the report of prescribed medicines should be stored with due care such that the confidentiality of those records are preserved in a proper way, keeping in mind the procedures of HIPAA. If any type of loss of data occurs, it can lead to a major loss as well as risk to the hospital. So, backup, is the best solution to prevent this scenario. Patients each and every data is needed to be stored as a backup. This backup must be stored in an external storage or an additional server can be used for the backup purpose.
However, this additional server backup system can also have an integrity issue. Hence, in order to solve this problem, encryption techniques are used. Two major departments, senior management and the finance department decide about the financial issues. At the initial stage, the physician is needed to examine whether the patients is needed to be admitted in the hospital for treatment, or by giving just few medicines, he will be relieved. But, this is not the end. Verification is needed to check whether the patient bills are cleared till the current date in order of his continuation in the hospital.
When such condition happens, where the patient is not in a situation to pay his bills and currently he is going through such treatment which can’t be closed, otherwise he will die, and also a thought which says that hospital is not mere a trade, but also a social service, then the top management has to make a decision whether that person can continue to stay in the hospital till his treatment or not and this decision should be taken keeping in mind the doctors recommendation and the family members consent as well.
The internal as well as external network should be prepared in such a compatible way that their speed of transferring data should be high. Two protocols, the ICMP as well as IGMP are used in these conditions. They advise whether the data packets have reached their destination or dropped somewhere in the middle. An algorithm, called the congestion control algorithms is used in such circumstances to save data. Operation of ICMP is handled in the fourth layer called transport layer (Kozierok, 2005).
They are the protocol that look after the Internet Protocol and deal with the congestion and data loss problems. For the security purpose, Secure Socket Layer and the Transport Layer Security are used. Its features are to provide security to the entire network. Furthermore, BCP and DRP solutions need to be maintained to allow the recovery of gone data. Reference Bates Regis J, Gregory Donald W, Voice & data communications handbook, 5th, illustrated 2007, McGraw-Hill Professional, ISBN 0072263350, 9780072263350 Chaikind H.
R, The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): overview and analyses, illustrated 2004, ISBN 1590339045, 9781590339046 Kozierok Charles M, The TCP/IP guide: a comprehensive, illustrated Internet protocols reference No Starch Press Series, Safari Books Online, illustrated 2005, No Starch Press, ISBN 159327047X 9781593270476 Lewin Kurt, Principles of Topological Psychology, illustrated 2008, READ BOOKS ISBN 1443727059, 9781443727051 Reinhold Arnold, Switching to a Mac For Dummies, illustrated 2007, For Dummies, ISBN 0470140763, 9780470140765
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