Confidentiality

Scenario:

As an employee of the hospital, one day I noticed two nurses laughing as they were reading something off a computer screen. You inquired as to what they were laughing about and they proceeded to show you what hey were reading. The nurses had looked up information on a rather unique incident of a patient who entered the emergency room a couple of weeks ago. They were discussing it and one of the nurses was in the process of printing out this information to share with another one of her friends that worked in the hospital. As a group, arrive at answers which you can justify for the four following questions.

Question 1:

What would you do if you were faced with this situation?

Answer:

We all agree that they are breaking the law of confidentiality. We all agree also that it is our obligation to keep this information confidential and to report this to the appropriate authority right away. If we do not report this behavior we are just as guilty and could be charged in a law suit if this were to get back to the patient. Under the Patient’s Bill of Rights the patient has the right to expect that all their communications and records pertaining to their care will be kept confidential. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) the privacy of patient health information is regulated. Under the Privacy Rule all entities must be incompliance with privacy, security, and electronic-data provisions. All laws and rules must be followed and if not then there are consequences that will follow.

Question 2:

What are some of the potential issues that can arise now that patient information is stored electronically and can be accessed quickly and easily by a number of individuals?

Answer:

One issue is that patients are not as truthful. They could be fearful of admitting to embarrassing information. This creates another issue of not having the complete medical record which means errors in treatment. Another issue is the invasion of privacy with all the people that have access to all this information as we read here in our scenario. There are potential lawsuits for the hospital if they do not follow the laws and rules of confidentiality. Measures have to be taken to avoid such lawsuits and they need to make sure that all persons who have access to these records are aware of these laws and rules and authorized to do so.

Question 3:

What are some ways in which a patient’s confidentiality can be better guarded with the use of technology?

Answer:

To help prevent unauthorized personnel from accessing the patient’s records there first has to be a system which would monitor all activities of all employees especially the ones that have access to the records. A simple software system such as the NetVizor employee monitoring & corporate surveillance software would work. It allows you to monitor user activities anywhere on your network in real time. All from a central location, NetVizor records such things as keystrokes typed, website visits,