Our healthcare professionals at Provide Community work tirelessly to transform the lives of those living in our communities through care, innovation, and compassion.
However, our colleagues on the front line would not be able to deliver life-changing care without the support of the wider Provide Community workforce, the majority of whom work behind the scenes to ensure our daily operations go smoothly.
One of the most important teams in our workforce is the Information Governance (IG) Team who dedicates themselves to monitoring how Provide Community shares information and data across its entire workforce. Petra Lastivkova has been our IG Manager for the past two years, prior to this Petra gained valuable front-line experience during her time at the Essex Wellbeing Service, in which she worked as a Health Improvement Specialist. Petra is passionate about her work and wants to spread the message of how to stay safe online and prevent your personal information from being used against individuals.
1. What is your role at Provide Community? – My role at Provide Community is Information Governance (IG) Manager
2. How long have you worked in your role? – In March 2023, it will be 2 years! Although I have been Provide for almost 6 years, before moving to the IG team I spent my time at the Essex Wellbeing Team as a Health Improvement Specialist.
3. Who do you work with and how do you help them? – I work across Provide Community’s entire workforce alongside my team colleagues. Together we help Provide staff to carry out all their daily clinical and non-clinical work with consideration for protecting patient and staff data. We also grant staff access to patient records, review and advise on IG incidents and contribute to the implementation of our recent Datix cloud project.
4. How does your day typically start? – Usually, my day starts with a walk!
5. Can you give some examples of the people you work with and what the outcomes were? – I work closely with the Systems team. Their work on the SystmOne patient system and our smartcard access and registration authority work is closely connected. We also work closely on reviewing serious incidents and how technical solutions can reduce human error in data breaches. I frequently liaise with the contracts team to work on contracts, ISAs, DPIAs, and data processing arrangements. And lastly, it would be impossible for us to work without the IT team. Whether that’s collaborating on our yearly Data Security assessment, carrying out simulated phishing attacks or working on Cyber security compliance, we wouldn’t be able to complete our work without them.
6. What do you like best about your job? – It is a fast-paced role, but I enjoy the variety. I get to work with a variety of teams, usually working on resolving issues for current projects at the time. I also like the fact that our team works behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly. The practicalities of IG across our professional and working lives are sometimes forgotten, so I am able to make sure that everything flows as it should do.
7. How important is colleague support in your role and how big is the IG team? – It’s so important! I work with a fantastic group of people whom all complement each other’s skills perfectly. We all support one another as a team and enjoy working together. The IG team currently consists of 4 people, including myself! We have one person on maternity leave and soon will be recruiting for the band 3 role, so look out!
8. Tell us why Information Governance is important to you? – Whether we like it or not IG is part of our daily lives. People are simply unable to escape from IG unless they live completely off the grid and have zero online presence. As we all live our lives online these days, it’s important that you’re smart with your information and that you keep it secure. IG should be important to everybody because if you’re not clever or aware of how your information can be used online, it’s likely your information will be used against you, not for you.
9. What would be your top tips for staying safe online? – I always say that if an offer seems too good to be true, it usually is! With that in mind do not click on links or attachments from unknown sources and don’t complete quizzes on social media, Facebook especially! One click on the link allows third-party platforms to harvest your personal data. And remember, all reputable companies will never ask you to supply personal and bank information in an email.
10. How can somebody’s data be used online, if they don’t take necessary precautions? – Money and credit card fraud are the most common, as well as identity fraud. Identity fraud can seriously harm your credit rating and the ability to get a mortgage. Ransomware is another common way scammers can use your identity and data against you, this includes blocking your access to personal laptops and computers in exchange for a ransom. Your data can also be harvested and used for political and social manipulation and misinformation.
11. If you could wave a magic wand for your team, what would your three wishes be? – A lot of what the IG team does is often labelled as ‘boring’, I’d love for our team to be completely rebranded and recognised as the ‘cool team’. I’d also love for us to have More social time together, and for the office to have chocolate in the cupboards all year round, not just at Christmas time!
