Question

You are a Health Information Manager in a hospital setting. Your facility has purchased an electronic health record (EHR) system. During the testing period, you and your staff discover that the EHR system does not comply with applicable federal privacy and security standards. Pressure is mounting to deploy the system in the near future. What ethical issues should you consider? How should you proceed? Word Count--300 words

Answer 1

There are some ethical issues regarding the implementation of EHR (Electronic Health Records). These ethical issues must be considered during the implementation of EHR.

The consideration of privacy, confidentiality, consent and security issues are some significant matter of concerns. There is risk of leakage of confidential information of the patients and security breach regarding the implementation of EHR. Therefore, EHR would disturb some of patient's rights. Consent of patient is necessary while disclosing any of their confidential information and there is a chance of the violation of this patient's right. The patient can access their own record and personal information which can be dangerous in some conditions like deadly diseases, etc. The patient could become scared about such disease and would not cooperate with the treatment. The mental and decision fatigue can delay patient's healthcare choices. There are chances of errors during entering the data into EHR and could result in misleading information for the patient. The responsibility for verifying the information in the EHR is not clear and this is also the matter of concern. There is also the chances of losing some vital information during the transfer of information between software systems which is also the matter of concern.

We should proceed very carefully while implementing EHR. We should protect the rights of patient's such as confidentiality, privacy, consent, self autonomy, respectful relationship, the promise of shared information protection, etc. There should not be any leakage of vital information of EHR. Confidential information should be protected from the cyber threats. Precautions should be taken while transferring such information between software systems. The responsibility for verifying the information in the EHR should be made clear. We should maintain the security standards regarding the EHR.

This is how we should proceed with the implementation of EHR.

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