Managing patient records is important for ensuring safe care. Because a patient record contains privacy-sensitive data, legal provisions require that it be possible to track who has had access to a record. The NEN 7513 standard describes a logging system that enables verification of legitimate access. That provides healthcare providers with guidelines for complying with legal obligations.

Legal control of logging required

Healthcare organizations are required by law to audit 60 patient records annually for legitimate access. The NEN 7513 describes a logging system that systematically and automatically records data regarding access to the patient record. This enables the control of legitimate access. This check is usually performed by a security officer or privacy officer.

Benefits of logging in line with NEN 7513

Good logging under the NEN 7513 standard brings several benefits.

Detection of unusual activities

Maintaining log files allows healthcare facilities to identify suspicious or unusual activity. By analyzing the log data, deviations from normal behavior can be noticed, such as unauthorized access attempts, failed login attempts or unusual data transmissions. This enables administrators to respond quickly and investigate potential security incidents.

Deeper research and incident response

In the event of a security incident or data breach, log data provides valuable information for a deeper investigation and incident response. By logging relevant events, administrators can analyze the origin and scope of the incident, identify potential vulnerabilities and take appropriate action to prevent recurrence.

Auditing and compliance

Logging is an important part of auditing processes and helps healthcare organizations comply with legal and regulatory requirements. Logging allows organizations to control access to sensitive information, monitor who has made changes to systems or data, and demonstrate compliance with security regulations.

Automate control of logging

Implementing an advanced logging mechanism should be a priority for healthcare organizations striving to achieve a high level of data security and protect the privacy of their patients. By automating logging control, it is possible to check all patient records within an organization for legitimate access. Automated checking is therefore preferred to manual sampling from the NEN 7510. In practice we see that the use of automated logging increases the privacy of patient data and saves a lot of time for the security officer who has to perform the check.