Protected Health Information

Type: Essay

Subject: Protected health information

Subject area: Nursing

Education Level: Undergraduate

Length: 1 pages

Referencing style: OXFORD Referencing

Preferred English: US English

Spacing Option: Double

Title: Protected health information

Instructions: by successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria: competency 1: describe nurses' and the interdisciplinary team's role in informatics with a focus on electronic health information and patient care technology to support decision making. describe the security, privacy, and confidentially laws related to protecting sensitive electronic health information that govern the interdisciplinary team. explain the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to safeguard sensitive electronic health information. competency 2: implement evidence-based strategies to effectively manage protected health information. identify evidence-based approaches to mitigate risks to patients and health care staff related to sensitive electronic health information. develop a professional, effective staff update that educates interprofessional team members about protecting the security, privacy, and confidentiality of patient data, particularly as it pertains to social media usage.

Focus: the task force has been charged with creating a series of interprofessional staff updates on the following topics: social media best practices. what not to do: social media. social media risks to patient information. steps to take if a breach occurs.

Structure: the task force has asked team members assigned to the topics to include the following content in their updates in addition to content on their selected topic(s): what is protected health information (phi)? be sure to include essential hipaa information. what are privacy, security, and confidentiality? define and provide examples of privacy, security, and confidentiality concerns related to the use of the technology in health care. explain the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to safeguard sensitive electronic health information. what evidence relating to social media usage and phi do interprofessional team members need to be aware of? for example: how many nurses have been terminated for inappropriate social media usage in the united states? what types of sanctions have health care organizations imposed on interdisciplinary team members who have violated social media policies? what have been the financial penalties assessed against health care organizations for inappropriate social media usage? what evidence-based strategies have health care organizations employed to prevent or reduce confidentiality, privacy, and security breaches, particularly related to social media usage?

Protected Health Information

Name

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Institution

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires various covered entities including healthcare providers and healthcare clearing houses to adopt measures that safeguard the integrity, protection and confidentiality of health information. Protected health information (PHI) involves the health data that has been created, stored or transmitted by entities stated under the HIPAA. Confidentiality refers to the obligation or requirement for professionals who are exposed to patient records to hold the data and information in confidence. Confidentiality regulates the communication between two parties including patients and nurses and physicians and patients’ family. For example, nurses are expected not to disclose patients’ data and information to their employers.

The privacy rule state that patients should be let alone to make decisions on how personal data and information is shared and make decisions independently. The right to privacy protection is engraved in the HIPAA Privacy Rule. For example, health care providers cannot disclose patients’ HIV status to the patients’ family without their consent.

Security refers to the protection of patients’ data and information stored in electronic media. Threats to security include hacking and theft of storage devices. The HIPAA Security rule aims at protecting the patients’ data or information stored in electronic form. For example, health care professionals should secure patient information with passwords to prevent unauthorized access.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential in safeguarding patient data and information. Healthcare professionals should work together to ensure that the data and information related to patients are only exposed to authorized users. Additionally, professionals should always involve and inform patients before making major medication decisions or passing information to other people including patients’ families. 

According to McLeod and Dolezel (2018), a former employee at VA Medical Center in Long Beach was charged with stealing 1000 patients records from the hospital. The employee named Albert Torres was found guilty for the offence and sentenced for three years in jail.

References

McLeod, A., & Dolezel, D. (2018). Cyber-analytics: Modeling factors associated with healthcare data breaches. Decision Support Systems, 108, 57-68.