Navigating Data Protection in Two Worlds

Introduction

With more than 9,500 employees across thirteen hospitals, the Elisabeth Vinzenz Verbund (EVV) is one of Germany’s major Catholic providers of healthcare and educational services. EVV operates facilities in seven federal states, navigating data protection requirements from various sources: state regulations, the GDPR, and Catholic data protection laws.

Dr. Niclas Krohm, Head of Data Protection and Group Data Protection Officer at EVV, is responsible for overseeing and optimizing data protection within the organization.

His role includes constantly re-evaluating and enhancing the internal data protection management system, as well as conducting regular data protection impact assessments.

Additionally, the digitalization of hospitals is on his agenda, especially under Germany’s Hospital Future Act (KHZG), which emphasizes "Privacy by Design" in process development.

Challenge

In 2022, Dr. Krohm set out to digitalize EVV’s data protection management system and standardize it further, particularly moving away from Excel spreadsheets.

Finding a partner who could address Catholic data protection needs was challenging; however, when he connected with caralegal, EVV was impressed by caralegal’s experience in healthcare data protection and their willingness to integrate Catholic data protection requirements.

Solution

For EVV, all data must be classified into three specific protection categories as required by Catholic data protection regulations. caralegal developed functions to facilitate compliance with these regulations within the software, streamlining the data management process for EVV.

The system has greatly improved efficiency, allowing updates to processing activity records to be done either on-site or remotely with process managers. All changes are immediately recorded, versioned, and standardized across the system.

“It’s far more convenient and intuitive than Excel spreadsheets,” adds Dr. Krohm.

Outlook

Flexibility and adaptability are critical for a data protection solution, as EVV faces ever-evolving requirements from Catholic data protection authorities. When new requirements arise, Dr. Krohm works closely with caralegal’s product experts to ensure the software stays current with these updates. This flexibility allows EVV to remain compliant in real-time.

“In my central management role, it’s essential to have a comprehensive overview of our data protection practices across the association. caralegal now enables us to quickly access critical information, without needing to request it from each location by email,” Dr. Krohm shares.

Thanks to these customizations, caralegal has become an ideal solution for institutions operating under Catholic data protection laws, providing EVV with a trusted partner specializing in healthcare.