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Confidentiality and privacy in healthcare
Ethics of confidentiality in healthcare
What is the importance of privacy and confidentiality in the medical field
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Recommended: Confidentiality and privacy in healthcare
According to Stanford & Connor (2014), as quoted by Hillary Clinton, “In almost every profession-whether it is law or journalism, finance or medicine or academia or running a small business- people rely on confidential communications to do their jobs. We count on the space of trust that confidentiality provides. When someone breaches that trust, we are all worse off for it (p.59). As stated in the previous quote, confidentiality is an important concept in medicine and many other different professions. In technical terms, confidentiality is the right of an individual to have personal, medical information kept private (p. 62). It is especially important in the health care profession because as a health care professional, individuals are responsible with the personal information of their clients and are obligated to keep that information from those who it does not concern. The concept of privacy is often used interchangeably when discussing confidentiality. Privacy is a right to not be bothered. The difference between the two is that privacy is being respectful of an individual and confidentiality is being respectful of that individual’s personal information. There are times when there …show more content…
Medical records and other information are not public property and the ethical thing to do is to treat it as that. There have been numerous cases where an individual would sue a company because their personal information and/or medical records were not properly secured and there was a breach. There have also been times when the breach was intentional where an employee was negligent. One example dates back to June 2014 where a retiring physician filed a complaint against her place of employment when they dumped boxes of patients’ records in her driveway (HHS Press Office,
My job is to also ensure that the patient is aware of our HIPAA policies and that we are dedicated to protecting their records from any hackers or someone calling on the phone hoping to get any information. Looking at it from a mom and a patient’s point of view, it makes me feel a little easier about entrusting mine and my child’s information with them. We must as people in the health care field respect our patients and their privacy, and the code of ethics holds us accountable for these things. Being a billing and coding specialist, we have to be sure to code exactly what the doctor did during the visit to the best of my ability. The code of ethics mean I am responsible for educating myself on new changes that may be coming with future coding manuals, because they do change often. Overall the code of ethics ensure that as long as the guidelines are followed we can do our jobs accurately and with the proper
A basic definition of confidentiality is that information about a patient is not discussed openly (Edge and Groves, 2007). This ethical principle became an issue when the government gave medical facilities lists of people who were in the study. Again, the patients were not informed that they would not be able to
Confidentiality is a major topic within care environments. When it comes to deciding what information is shared and who it is shared amongst can be difficult. Confidential information, is information that is ‘not to be told to anyone’ (The Open University, 2015, p. 58). Information that is sensitive or not publicly known is confidential, also if information is given by a person who is in a setting where confidentially is expected then that information should remain private and not shared with others. It can be very difficult for a staff member to find the balance between knowing what information is confidential and appropriate information that needs to be shared between the staff team.
In the modern era, the use of computer technology is very important. Back in the day people only used handwriting on the pieces of paper to save all documents, either in general documents or medical records. Now this medical field is using a computer to kept all medical records or other personnel info. Patient's records may be maintained on databases, so that quick searches can be made. But, even if the computer is very important, the facility must remain always in control all the information they store in a computer. This is because to avoid individuals who do not have a right to the patient's information.
Support: In health and social care practice, an individual is given required privacy, given independence, allowed individuality. Besides these, every individual is given equal rights, support, attention and care and his friends and families also treated properly. In health and social care, individual from culture of wide variety to be served and for this reason, views and values from different cultures and communities are respected.
There is a great importance and focus in modelling a contemporary nurse. The framework for improving this focus is accountability with three main areas: professional, ethical, legal. They all cross over and interlink with each other in many of the topics that are raised within the profession. The approach of the framework were inevitable to reduces to blame and defensive nursing attitude. This attitude can lead to nurses believing accountability is the same as blaming a professional however it is conversely nurses making decisions for individuals and engaging to improve better health outcomes. The topic around this contemporary approach is confidentiality and broken into the principles of the approach.
Confidentiality is a major key in the ethics code. Once confidentiality is broken, the physician-patient relationship will cease to exist. Confidentiality is important because it allows patients to be more open and honesty with their visits. Breaking confidentiality can cause significant negative effects. The physicians could get charged with violation of patient confidentiality, lose their patients, or even lose their licenses to practice.
Privacy vs Confidentiality: Is There a Difference? Privacy is the control over the manner and circumstances of sharing oneself with others. For example, a client may not want to be seen entering a place that might stigmatize them, a problem that well may be common in the Human Services field, as there’s a perceived stigma to needing services, whether they be residential, related to child care, or other types of service. The Human Services professional may, in these instances, find themselves agreeing (within the confines of acceptable workplace behavior) to meet with a client in a setting that doesn’t involve their office.
Patient confidentiality is one of the foundations to the medical practice. Patients arrive at hospitals seeking treatment believing that all personal information will remain between themselves and the medical staff. In order to assure patients privacy, confidentiality policies were established. However, a confidentiality policy may be broken only in the case the medical staff believes that the patient is a danger to themselves or to others in society. Thesis Statement: The ethics underlying patient confidentiality is periodically questioned in our society due to circumstances that abruptly occur leaving health professionals to decide between right and wrong.
Confidentiality is defined as the protection of personal information. It means keeping a client’s information between the health care providers and the client. Every single patient has the right to privacy regarding their personal information from being released to anyone outside of their health care providers. Health care providers have a legal and ethical responsibility to protect all information regarding patients by not disclosing their information to anyone without their written consent from the patient.
If people feel comfortable in their surroundings then privacy is not a concern. At other times, people feel violated when they are subject to random searches; this random factor is what other people consider wrong. People feel intruded on when they see a roadblock ahead or a request to see their driver’s license when writing checks. Others are interrupted at dinner by the phone ringing from telemarketers. This selling of information is what the Europeans call data protection. If the data is not kept private, things such as credit card numbers could be stolen over the phone.
Confidentiality is the ability to keep certain information private (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014, p. 76). Nurses must maintain patients’ confidentiality to promote moral respect in
Confidentiality is the foundation of a trusting relationship between a doctor and their patient. The patient believes that their information will be confidential, so they let themselves be vulnerable with their providers and share their most sensitive information. According to Veatch “confidentiality involves more than patient benefit, it is derived from fidelity commitment.” The doctor is in a dilemma because both individuals involved are his patients. He owes the male patient confidentiality, meaning before he discloses the patient’s information he needs his permission (Veatch, p. 67).
Doctor patient confidentiality, is a fundamental element of the practice of medicine. Patients can expect that doctors and their support staff will hold confidential information about them in confidence, unless the release of the information is required by law or for public interest reasons. Ensuring confidentiality is retained allows doctors to examine their patients and receive all relevant information about their condition without a worry of judgement or sharing of the information.
Choose an aspect of the law and discuss this in relation to the role of the nurse.