Portsmouth hospitals go for single sign-on

Portsmouth Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Trust is implementing a single sign-on and context management system as part of an ongoing efficiency drive.

The trust, which includes Queen Alexandra hospital as one of the largest in the UK that is currently being refurbished, will implement the new technology to speed up and simplify the process clinicians use to log onto patient information systems.

Security has not been as tight as it should be because of the time taken to log in and out of these applications, according to Philip Scott, head of IT projects and development at the trust.

As a result, he said: "Often one hospital worker will log on to a workstation in the morning and remain logged on all day, with other people accessing information through that individual's log in.

"This violates all the security policies that should be in place and makes it impossible to effectively restrict access to certain applications based on role, or monitor who is accessing what information."

Portsmouth clinicians will use single sign-on and context management software from healthcare identity and access management specialist, Sentillion to eliminate error, speed information access, maintain patient privacy and provide a security audit trail.

Miya Knights

A 25-year veteran enterprise technology expert, Miya Knights applies her deep understanding of technology gained through her journalism career to both her role as a consultant and as director at Retail Technology Magazine, which she helped shape over the past 17 years. Miya was educated at Oxford University, earning a master’s degree in English.

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