Question

Imagine you are working at a hospital. You find out that one of your friends was admitted to the hospital last night and has had surgery. Although you are not assigned to take care of your friend, she is in the unit that you work, therefore you have access to her medical record. You are in the EHR documenting on your assigned patients and decide to take a “quick look” at your friend’s chart to find out why she had surgery and how she is doing. A little later you call a family member to tell them about your friend’s surgery.

1. Discuss what was done wrong in this scenario and the possible implications and consequences. Be thorough in writing your answer.

2. One of the largest problems with healthcare information security has been, and still is, inappropriate access by authorized users. How will the current regulations help reduce or eliminate this particular problem? Provide at least one example in your answer.

Answer 1

1)The nurse when taking care of patient,s can know the condition and treatment of the patients whom they are not assigned , to help out in critical or emergency situation.The nurse had done a breach of confidentiality and privacy by disclosing this to the family member without patient consent.Secondly the nurse has accessed the data without the knowledge of the concerned assigned staff of the friend.

The possible implication and consequences is the nurse can be sued for breach of confidentiality and privacy,also the administration for monetary claiming for damage and distress against the data protection breach.

2)Inappropriate access by authorised users can be prevented by the organization's policy by strictly adhering to the rules and actions taken on those who fail to follow it, resulting in defaming the name of the organizations .The current access by Electronic Health records ,usernsnr,passwords, overseen by the IT professionals, the health data platforms observed or survaillenced by the security team to avoid or eliminate this particular problem.

For example access possible only to the assigned staff for assigned patients .