Managing Health Information and Technology Essay

NURS-FPX4040 Managing health information and technology

From the information given in the case, the main focus is on the creation of an educative platform for the nurses to learn more about the requirements of HIPAA and patient data privacy. The case above shows a scenario where a nurse posted confidential information about a patient who was recovering. The nurse violated the primary social media use policy for the organization. Therefore, there is a need to update the nurses about the basics of social media use as well as HIPAA as they relate to patient safety and health.

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Protected health information can be defined as any data which can be used to directly identify a patient from a medical dimension involving clinical aspects of that person (Gostin, Halabi & Wilson, 2018). HIPAA provides that hospitals must ensure that the practitioners protect the information involving patients among other medical records to uphold privacy and confidentiality attributes. An example of such information is patient diagnosis records, history and but not limited to the current medical conditions which a given person exhibits.

In the medical fields, the adoption of the HIPAA policy helped in ensuring privacy, confidentiality and security of patient data. Privacy can be seen as the attribute of keeping records within the required boundaries. In this case, guaranteeing privacy can be seen as a collaborative team milestone where nurses refrain from sharing patient data inappropriately. Security defines the ability to maintain the desired levels of protection when it comes to the personal and patient records within a healthcare setting. On the other hand, confidentiality helps the nurses to maintain a boundary of information sharing about a given piece of data involving patients. The information discussed between a doctor, and a patient is considered to be confidential.

Interdisciplinary interactions and collaborations play a crucial role in ensuring that the nurses exhibit the right attributes to guarantee patient safety, privacy and confidentiality. Using the various technologies such as social media has been associated with an increase in breach of privacy, security and confidentiality of patient and health data (Fanti Silva & Colleoni, 2018). Sharing sensitive data across the social media as shown in the case above breaches the safety, confidentiality as well as privacy of the underlying patients.

There are diverse pieces of evidence that can be used in defining the importance of ensuring the proper use of social media platforms. In this case, one of the main issues that have been witnessed over the years is the use of social media such as Facebook by nurses to post the progress of their patients as defined from the case above. According to a report by Wofford, (2019), at least 50 practitioners were terminated from the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago for HIPAA violations. This incident shows that failing to comply with the HIPAA policy requirements leads to severe consequences on the affected parties and nurses. It is worth noting that this incident is only one of the many that continue to happen every year.

Numerous regulations have been put in place by the various agencies to ensure maximum benefits as far as using social media is concerned. Some of the most common regulations, sanctions and consequences that are witnessed after a violation has occurred include penalties, fines, lawsuits and but not limited to civil actions (Moore & Frye, 2019). Violating these regulations increases the risks of the underlying entities to suffer the mentioned consequences. For instance, noncompliance with the requirements provided by HIPAA attracts a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $50000 for every record. A maximum penalty amounting to $1.5 million can be imposed on the underlying parties per year (True Vault, n.d.). Hospitals, in this case, can use strategies such as employee training and education to minimize the cases of violations of privacy, security and confidentiality. Such an approach would equip the nurses and employees with the right knowledge and skills about privacy and the use of social media platforms.

References

Fanti Silva, D. A., & Colleoni, R. (2018). Patient’s Privacy Violation on Social Media in the Surgical Area. The American Surgeon, 84(12), 1900-1905.

Gostin, L. O., Halabi, S. F., & Wilson, K. (2018). Health data and privacy in the digital era. Jama, 320(3), 233-234.

Moore, W., & Frye, S. (2019). Review of HIPAA, part 1: history, protected health information, and privacy and security rules. Journal of nuclear medicine technology, 47(4), 269-272.

True Vault. (n.d.). How much do HIPAA violations cost? True Vault. Retrieved from https://www.truevault.com/resources/compliance/how-much-do-hipaa-violations-cost

Wofford, P. (2019). Jussie Smollett Case: 50 Hospital Workers Fired For Alleged HIPAA Violations. Nurse.org. Retrieved from https://nurse.org/articles/smollett-hospital-workers-fired/