Quantitative and Qualitative Tools Used

The quantitative tools used include the use of structured questionnaires specifically designed to support statistical coding in SPSS Version 14, the use of Microsoft Excel for completing extrapolations and forecasts including the development of presentation graphics for use in the report. Qualitative tools include the open-ended questionnaires and the follow-up series of e-mails used to capture the research needed for completing the study.

Benefits and Limitations of the Research Study

The benefits of this specific study include the following:

Best in Class benchmarking of healthcare providers on the dimensions of how they manage records security and patient privacy.

Insights and statistical analysis of the current high level of unawareness of how healthcare providers are grappling with HIPAA compliance

Challenges of creating security and compliance strategies in many organizations that have manually-oriented approaches to managing patient privacy today

The limitations of this study include:

Lack of coverage in terms of the severity of security breaches the respondents have experienced.

Lack of depth in terms...

To begin with the successive waves of the methodology are not immediately apparent from the completed report; only through conversations with the company did this become clear. Second, the conclusions are so quickly done and thin in their applicability to privacy they could be applied to any situation having to do with data analysis. Third, the focus of the study on process re-definition is also over-played and needs to be more focused on the development of strategies to align better with employee privacy. The bottom line is the report suffers from being too cursory in its analysis, needing more in-depth analysis to make the entire report more valuable from a strategy perspective.
References

Automating Healthcare Security, Business Value Research Series. March, 2006. Stacey Quandt, Research Director Security Solutions. Boston, MA