healthcare-phi-compliance

Enable Row-Level Security on all PHI tables and create policies scoping access by facility and staff role. Tag sensitive columns with schema comments like 'PHI: patient_name' and maintain an insert-only audit log for every data access or modification.

Create an RLS policy that checks the user's facility assignments via a staff_assignments table, so clinicians only see patients at their own facility. Verify isolation by logging in as a Facility A doctor and confirming queries against Facility B return zero rows.

PHI is any data that identifies a patient and relates to their health: names, dates of birth, addresses, national IDs like SSN or Aadhaar, medical record numbers, diagnoses, medications, lab results, and insurance details. Staff salaries and doctor payouts are PII, not PHI.

Error messages and logs are common leak vectors because they reach clients, monitoring tools, and error tracking services. Return generic errors to clients and log only opaque internal UUIDs server-side, never medical record numbers or patient names.

No, PHI must never be stored in localStorage or sessionStorage because it persists and is accessible to scripts. Keep PHI in memory only, fetch it on demand, and never place patient identifiers in URL parameters that appear in browser history.

Yes, the patterns apply to HIPAA in the US, DISHA in India, GDPR in the EU, and general healthcare data protection. The classification, access control, and audit principles are regulation-agnostic.