Maintaining Privacy with Electronic Health Record (HIPAA) As healthcare continues to change, so does the format of the patients’ medical record. Within the past 10 years, more health care systems have transitioned to an electronic health record (EHR). Electronic health records provide pertinent medical details including previous medical screenings, history, medication reconciliation and any prior treatments in “in a convenient and timely online platform.”(Beard et al., 2012) In the past, clinical staff would manually enter information regarding the care of the patient into a paper chart at the nursing station surrounded by other clinical staff. Today, that chart takes an electronic form and can be accessed by the clinical staff anywhere, most …show more content…
It is critical for every nurse to have knowledge of the Privacy Section of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and the American Nurses Associate (ANA) Code of Ethics. Within both of these documents are very clear principles that outline the expected behaviors of nurses related to protecting patient privacy and confidentiality of patient information. The American Nurses Association (ANA) code of ethics states: a patient’s health could be put at risk as well as the assurance between the patient and nurse destroyed by avoidable access of data or disclosure of verifiable patient information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) also called the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information provided the first nationally-recognizable regulations for the use/disclosure of an individual’s health information. Under the HIPAA health organizations are mandated and required to protect patient information. In addition to providing excellent and appropriate clinical care, nurses must be diligent in their practice of protecting patient information. As an example, if a nurse is using the work station on wheels (WOW) and charting at the bedside, extra attention should be given to not leaving the workstation unattended. Depending on the password policies of health organizations, information in this computer could be accessed by anyone, family or visitor …show more content…
Increased regulations have emerged to protect the rights of the patient which, in turn, has allowed the patient to be the recognized owner of his or her care. Nurses who provide care are entrusted with the patient’s health information solely to be of service to that patient. It is a nurses’ duty to protect the well-being of those who are entrusted into their care. Protecting the integrity of the nurse-patient relationship and patient rights is a trust that should not be
In order to provide the best care, nurses must not break patients’ rights nor their trust. When a patient walks in a health facility, health care providers (HCP) must respect the patient health privacy.
For years now, the healthcare system in the United States have managed patient’s health records through paper charting, this has since changed for the better with the introduction of an electronic medical record (EMR) system. This type of system has helped healthcare providers, hospitals and other ambulatory institutions extract data from a patient’s chart to help expedite clinical diagnosis and providing necessary care. Although this form of technology shows great promise, studies have shown that this system is just a foundation to the next evolution of health technology. The transformation of EMR to electronic heath record system (EHR) is the ultimate goal of the federal government.
Historically, physicians and nurses documented patients’ health information using paper and pencil. This documentation created numerous errors in patients’ medical records. Patient information became lost or destroyed, medication errors occur daily because of illegible handwriting, and patients had to wait long periods to have access to their medical records. Since then technology has changed the way nurses and health care providers care for their patients. Documentation of patient care has moved to an electronic heath care system in which facilities around the world implement electronic health care systems. Electronic health records (EHR) is defined as a longitudinal electronic record of
Unfortunately, the quality of health care in America is flawed. Information technology (IT) offers the potential to address the industry’s most pressing dilemmas: care fragmentation, medical errors, and rising costs. The leading example of this is the electronic health record (EHR). An EHR, as explained by HealthIT.gov (n.d.), is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. It includes, but is not limited to, medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans. The EHR, then, serves as a resource that aids clinicians in decision-making by providing comprehensive patient information.
Therefore, nurses are expected to comply with legislation, policies, standards, and guidelines that will guide nurses to follow both legal and ethical duties. One of the ethical and legal obligations of a registered nurse and student nurse is to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patients (NMBA, 2013, p.6). Similarly, code of ethics for nurses has also outlined this nursing responsibility in their value statement 7 (NMBA, 2008, p.3). For example, Butts (2013), explained that the nurses can maintain physical privacy by draping the patient's body while providing care. Likewise, nurse and patient should discuss in a private room to maintain auditory privacy. Another duty of nurses is to keep the patient information confidential. This information can be either in written, oral or in electronic form. Other members of health team, like doctors who are directly involved in the patient care, can have access to patient data. Nurses cannot disclose the patient's information to patient's families, friends or third party without patient consent. However, if a patient's right and safety are jeopardized, then to protect patient, the confidential information can be disclosed. But when a nurse acts outside the code of professional conduct a nurse is held accountable by law. Therefore, in order to protect nurses and nursing students from ethical issues,
Privacy and confidentiality are very important in the field of nursing. As nurses, we have a right to our patients to protect their privacy and confidentiality. Privacy refers to the right to have control over what information can be shared with others, while confidentiality is the right to not have any information be shared with anyone who doesn’t have permission (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014, p.76). Sometimes in certain cases, we must break privacy and confidentiality.
According to the American Nurses Association (ANA), (2010) “the nurse promotes, advocates for and strives to protect the health, safety and rights of the patient” (p. 6). Nursing responsibilities should be acted upon at the highest standard and must be based on legal and ethical obligations. Healthcare provider’s perception and judgment of the patient’s well being, as well as taking into account the rights of the patient in every action, is one of the key elements in nursing practice. International Council of Nurses (ICN) (2006) states “The nurse at all times maintains standards of personal conduct which reflect well on the profession and enhance public confidence” (p. 3).
This paper will identify the use of Electronic Health Records and how nursing plays an important role. Emerging in the early 2000’s, utilizing Electronic Health Records have quickly become a part of normal practice. An EHR could help prevent dangerous medical mistakes, decrease in medical costs, and an overall improvement in medical care. Patients are often taking multiple medications, forget to mention important procedures/diagnoses to providers, and at times fail to follow up with providers. Maintaining an EHR could help tack data, identify patients who are due for preventative screenings and visits, monitor VS, & improve overall quality of care in a practice. Nurse informaticists play an important role in the adaptation, utilization, and functionality of an EHR. The impact the EHR could have on a general population is invaluable; therefore, it needs special attention from a trained professional.
This idea is stated under Provision number 3 in the Code of Ethics for Nurses. To better explain it, the following section will explain two main points that belong to this provision. The first aspects this paper will cover are privacy and confidentiality. Privacy is essential to every human being; it is a right that every person is born with.
As a nurse, it is within your role to safeguard the right to privacy for individuals. To ensure that nurses are adhering to this, ethical strategies have been proposed and implemented from a legal and regulatory body.
Over the past decade, technological advances have paved the way for nurses to provide, quality, safe, standardized and individualized patient care (Saba & McCormick, 2015). The use of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) to manage patient data is quickly becoming widespread in the healthcare industry. The emerging use of the Electronic Health Record, is transforming how nurses care for patients. By creating and implementing an electronic, comprehensive, standardized method of recording patient data, nurses can facilitate and coordinate patient care with members of the multidisciplinary healthcare team. The use of the Electronic Health Record will promote positive
Ethics asses the values, morals, and principles of nurses. Legal codes or laws are rules established by our government. It’s important that nurses have a clear and comprehensive understanding of ethical and legal codes within their career. The understanding of these codes is essential for nurses to safely practice and to protect their patients. Nurses must abide by these principles or face the consequences of legal action. These principles include autonomy, utilitarianism, confidentiality, and many others. Autonomy is the agreement to respect ones right to determine a course of action, while utilitarianism is what is best for most people as defined in American Nurses Association. In order to give you a
A norm in society is when an individual sees danger, they are supposed to report it to the authorities, therefore preventing any further damage. Breach of confidentiality is when a nurse shares information about a patient with others who are not authorized to know about the patient's personal information. Due to this, patients are afraid to be honest with their physicians and nurses that are treating them. In order to assure patients’ confidentiality, health professionals created the patient bill of rights to ensure that patient’s personal information is kept safe from outsiders.
Ragavan, V. (2012, August 27). Medical Records Pals Malaysia : 17 Posibble Reasons How Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Might Support Day-to-Day Patient Care. Retrieved from Medical Records Pals Malaysia: http://mrpalsmy.wordpress.com/category/emr/
Similarly, legislation and privacy worries are in effect all cross the globe and nurses have the beliefs which they will continue to keep confidential and private detail and information for their clients within the client doctor realm. However, clients use the medical services to understand that their personal and medical information are not in the wrong person’s hand because in nursing professional, nurses have the most interaction between the client and doctor, these are the preeminent vital to the nurses in nursing