What is required to ensure secure access control to protected health information?

To ensure secure access control to protected health information, implementing automatic log off at each workstation is crucial. This practice helps protect sensitive data from unauthorized access in scenarios where employees may leave their workstations unattended. Automatic log-off features ensure that sessions are terminated after a predefined period of inactivity, which minimizes the risk of someone gaining unauthorized access to a workstation and, consequently, the protected health information displayed there.

While providing employees with personal login credentials is essential for accountability and individual access management, it is not sufficient on its own. Similarly, while installing firewalls and encrypting emails contribute to overall cybersecurity measures and data protection, they do not specifically address access control practices at the level of individual workstations. Automatic log-off is a targeted strategy that mitigates risk by ensuring that sessions do not remain open indefinitely, thus enhancing the safeguarding of sensitive information against potential breaches.