What is SharePoint, How Infowise Ultimate Forms relates to SharePoint?

SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office. SharePoint is primarily a document management and storage system, but the product is highly configurable, and its usage varies substantially among organizations. It syncs up PCs and mobile devices through its back-end system and allows employees within the business to share information in synchronicity and spontaneity.

SharePoint is a powerful enterprise content management platform that provides multiple solutions for information management. Such problems include data loss, time-consuming redundant processes, poor communication, low accountability, quality issues and inconsistency in overall performance.

SharePoint is not an innovative solution to the mentioned problems; however, it employs an advanced approach. It works to enhance the efficacy of daily activities and to optimize the usage of resources for better decision making.

The authors Althagafi & Daghistani (2017) have substantiated the positive impact of SharePoint in healthcare institutions. Infowise contribution to the SharePoint users' community is well-known through its flagship product [Infowise ULTIMATEforms], a robust solution that is designed to empower users with little or no coding experience.

Infowise ULTIMATEforms Premium Suite runs on SharePoint, through which you can create business processes solutions. The following content will provide you with the functionalities of SharePoint that enhances the performance of healthcare institutions. 

1. Collaboration

SharePoint offers a web-based platform on which the users could share documents with other users.  Users could also have personal storage space with share permission function. Access to the different items of SharePoint can be granted to specific users as well as to groups of users.  Such added access permission controls to projects/documents enhance workflows and approvals processes.

2. Regulation – HIPAA

Getting an information management solution to be fully compliant with the HIPAA regulations cannot be achieved to the tee. However, SharePoint has incorporated a few mechanisms to make sure of the highest degree of compliance.

SharePoint has multiple permission levels for accessing Protected Health Information. Therefore, it allows only the authorized users to access, edit and share the healthcare information. It also offers different users to have access rights to individual files. For instance, a hospital billing department won’t have access to healthcare details; however, they can access payment and insurance information.

SharePoint can also restrict access as per the network location and allows only trusted networks to access PHI. However, as required by HIPAA, this content management platform provides access to PHI in emergency situations, for instance when there is a threat to an individual’s health and security.

SharePoint assigns a unique number to a user for identification and tracking purposes. It also ensures support for stronger user passwords. SharePoint also follows a two-factor authentication to provide better security.

SharePoint also has a solution for PHI being accessed by unauthorized users when an authorized user has left its account signed up and has gone inactive on it. SharePoint will terminate the session after a predetermined inactivity time.

SharePoint uses BitLocker to secure PHI at on disk encryption level. It also guarantees a file at file encryption level with the key that utilizes Advanced Encryption Standard with 256- bit keys. For data transfer, SharePoint ensures data encryption through SSL/TLS connections which are configured using 2048-bit keys.

SharePoint provides an extensive audit trail as it allows for the record and examination of all activities about the contract such as opening, downloading, printing, and emailing. 

SharePoint maintains the integrity of the information by controlling the access to it. It prevents any unauthorized user to alter or delete PHI. SharePoint also has a preventive feature for data loss that identifies the sensitive data and impedes its leakage.

3. Security

Microsoft has ensured that many of SharePoint's features meet HIPAA regulations requirements. However, further protection becomes a duty of the users, and they have to abide by the HIPAA rules and make sure that  SharePoint is accordingly configured. Businesses using this platform should set permissions and access controls for different departments and roles. Lastly, training users is of paramount importance for the efficient and secure use of the platform. Along with technical knowledge, users must learn about the restrictions imposed by HIPAA.

4. Process Optimization

SharePoint also provides you with the business’ data through which you can decipher trend and patterns. Such intelligence allows the firms to make better business decisions based on the provided information. SharePoint produces trend charts and performance data over time for managers to share with teams across the platform.

Several business processes could be made efficient through automation. SharePoint offers some form of automation which could be further customized by user's own IT department. However, those measures had limitations because they mandated the SharePoint developers to connect and integrate the processes.

SharePoint Online is a helpful tool for non-technical business users in building their automated processes and workflows. The integration of Microsoft Flow with SharePoint offers proper and in-depth automation. Healthcare institutions can structure workflow that, for instance, notifies the staff when there are changes in the on-call schedules or when there are some changes in their SOPs.

5. Patient Management

SharePoint can enhance the performance of the healthcare institution through efficient patient management. SharePoint enables a single point of entry for hospitals and staff to access patients’ information. Through SharePoint, healthcare institutions could develop a library of patient records by uploading images, e-billing records, e-medical records, and e-prescriptions. It could also structure workflows to monitor patients and then creating their discharge reports.

Patient portals could be designed through SharePoint so they can access healthcare information and communicate with the preferred physician. There could also be a physician portal through which the physicians can access patient information and view the diagnosis they have had in the past. The most important feature of SharePoint is document management, and it is through this feature that healthcare institutions can enhance their patient management as most of the times it is marred by improper records.

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At Infowise, we are serving as a strategic partner, assisting public and private enterprises in their digital transformation endeavors with our scalable, smart and futuristic tools, software and applications. Our product Infowise UltimateForms Power Suite contains more than 15 standalone SharePoint applications developed to give you the power to innovate, automate and scale up your processes. Our products designed for optimum interoperability and seamless integration within SharePoint. Altogether, they constitute the structural foundation for digitization and facilitate your transition to digital transformation.

Click to Download Infowise Ultimate Forms 30-days free trial. Simple process. After you've installed Infowise UF, go ahead and create an unlimited number of Business Process Applications. Alternatively, to start with a ready template, click here and download a ready-to-use business process template from our vast solutions library, go ahead re-purpose, resue to service your needs.