Salesforce Shield

For healthcare providers, keeping your health information safe is a top priority. This is where a strong and reliable security system like Salesforce Shield becomes essential. So, what is Salesforce Shield? How does Salesforce Shield fit in here? What does it do?

To begin with, Salesforce Shield ensures all necessary measures are taken to protect sensitive patient data. It uses encryption, allowing only authorized people to access it. Shield also controls who sees your information, making sure only those involved in your care can view it. Plus, it constantly monitors activity for suspicious behavior, like someone trying to access your data without permission.

In simple terms, Salesforce Shield lets healthcare providers focus on what they do best - providing you with excellent care.

And here is where it gets exciting! While we have covered the basics of Salesforce Shield, there is so much more to explore and experience. Keep reading for expert insights!

Understanding Salesforce Shield

Salesforce Shield isn't just another security tool—it's specially designed to ensure compliance with regulations governing sensitive and protected health information (PHI). It provides robust security features that help healthcare organizations maintain data integrity, prevent malicious activity, and monitor usage effectively.

Key Features of Salesforce Shield

We all know how important it is to protect patient data in healthcare today. Why? Because as healthcare providers, ensuring the security and privacy of sensitive health information is not just a legal requirement but also a moral obligation. Patient data contains highly personal and confidential information that must be safeguarded to maintain trust and uphold ethical standards.

With features like Platform Encryption, Event Monitoring and more, Salesforce Shield not only keeps sensitive health information safe but also gives insights into how well your systems are performing and how users are interacting.

Let's understand how the robust solution of Salesforce Shield specifically caters to healthcare providers' security and compliance needs. These Salesforce Shield features can help your organization maximize data security and ensure operational excellence.

Salesforce Shield Platform Encryption:

• Platform Encryption natively encrypts sensitive data at rest. This feature ensures compliance with regulations such as HIPAA.  
• By encrypting PHI, personally identifiable information (PII), and other confidential data, healthcare providers can protect patient records while maintaining critical app functionality.
• Organizations retain full control over encryption keys and can set permissions to restrict unauthorized access to encrypted data.

HIPAA Compliance: Platform Encryption helps address HIPAA requirements for storing sensitive protected health information (PHI).

Data Protection: It safeguards personally identifiable information (PII), PHI, and other sensitive or confidential data.

Critical App Functionality: Encryption ensures compliance while maintaining essential app functionality, including search, workflow, and validation rules.

Control Over Encryption Keys: You retain full control over encryption keys, ensuring data security.

Permissions Management: Set encrypted data permissions to protect sensitive information from unauthorized users.

Salesforce Shield Event Monitoring:

• Event Monitoring provides detailed insights into performance, security, and usage across all Salesforce apps.
• Every user interaction is tracked and accessible via APIs, allowing organizations to analyze data in their preferred visualization tools.
• Benefits include understanding user adoption, troubleshooting performance issues, and optimizing end-user experience.
• Event Monitoring data seamlessly integrates with analytics platforms like Splunk, New Relic, or Salesforce Analytics.

Granular Tracking: Every user interaction is tracked and accessible via API.

Access Insights: Identify who accesses critical business data, when, and from where.

User Adoption Analysis: Understand user adoption across your apps.

Performance Optimization: Troubleshoot and optimize performance to enhance end-user experience.

Integration with Data Visualization Tools: Event Monitoring data can be easily imported into tools like Analytics, Splunk, or New Relic.

Best Practices for Healthcare Data Security with
Salesforce Shield

With the rise in cyber threats and regulatory requirements, ensuring robust data security practices has become paramount. Salesforce Shield offers a comprehensive suite of tools and features tailored to meet the unique security challenges faced by healthcare providers. Let's look at some of the best ways to keep patient information safe with Salesforce Shield and strengthen your organization's security.

Implement Platform Encryption:

• Identify sensitive fields (such as patient names, medical history, or diagnosis details) and enable encryption.
• Customize encryption policies based on your organization’s needs.
• Regularly review and update encryption settings as new data elements are introduced.

Monitor User Activity:

• Leverage Event Monitoring to track user behavior.
• Detect anomalies, unauthorized access attempts, or unusual patterns.
• Use this data to enhance security policies and educate users about safe practices.

Secure Mobile Access:

• Extend Salesforce Shield’s benefits to mobile devices.
• Ensure that mobile apps accessing patient data adhere to encryption standards.
• Educate healthcare professionals about secure mobile practices.

Regularly Audit Permissions:

• Review user profiles and roles to prevent over-privileged access.
• Restrict access to sensitive data based on job roles and responsibilities.
• Monitor changes to permissions and promptly address any discrepancies.

Educate Staff:

• Train healthcare staff in data security best practices.
• Emphasize the importance of safeguarding patient information.
• Encourage reporting of suspicious activities or potential breaches.

User Access Control:

• Properly configure Health Cloud settings and control user access to patient or member lists.

Data Sharing Design:

• Leverage Salesforce’s flexible data-sharing design restricts access to sensitive information.

Ready to Optimize Data Security with Salesforce Shield?

We understand how important it is to keep patient information safe while maintaining operational efficiency. That’s why Salesforce Shield is here to help. It empowers healthcare organizations like yours to strike this balance effectively. With features like Platform Encryption and Event Monitoring, you can confidently embrace digital transformation and meet privacy regulations. At the same time, teaming up with a trusted Salesforce Partner like Accelirate enables your teams to harness the full potential of Salesforce Shield and deliver quality care seamlessly. For more information and expert insights, contact us today!