Question

CASE STUDY pital or in the ph as a general benefit at the nursing home and are seen at the hos Last month you were hired with the title Specialist at an independent comm 350 beds、The hospi clinic, a rehabilitation center with bot Health Informatics ital includes a comprehensive outpatient tient services, a cardiac care center, and an emergency room. lty t an independent community care hospital with sicians' offices. This coordination is seern atients have for a number of patients. It appears that most th inpatient and outpa- signed a form giving the hospital permission to send infon to the nursing home. However, these forms hav individual offices, so it is difficult to d tion e bee In addition, four family health centers are located throughout stored in the community. More than 930 primary care and specia physicians are associated with the hospital, which has a staff has not been given to share intormation among the nursin of just over 2000 employees. The hospital has an EHR home, hospital, and independent medical practices. who has signed what forms and what ne permission has on in place The hospital has a working relationship with a major aca demic medical center located 23 miles away. Acute care patients who need more extensive treatment are usually trans ferred to the medical center. These are often emergency situ ations, and data are freely shared among the institutions with Discussion Questio 1. What additional information is needed to clarify what problems may exist and what changes may be needed in terms of data that are shared among the institutions? 2. Can the EHR system and/or e-mail be used to share data Located directly beside the hospital is a 194-bed skilled among these different institutions more effectively and securely? If yes, how would this be done? For example, what agreements, policies, and procedures might need to the best interests of the patient in mind. nursing home. While the nursing home has its own medical staff consisting of a physician and two nurse practitioners, patients needing consults or additional care are usually seen t the hospital with follow-up at physicians' offices. While be developed? 3. In your position as Health Informatics Specialist, how would you go about determining whether there are other the nursing home, most of the physicians' offices, and the hos- pital are independent institutions, there is a long history ofpotential security issues that now need to be managed by sharing health-related data when treating patients who live the hospital

Answer 1

1. The additional information needed to clarify are :-

- patients consent is taken after making them understand about the use of their health data .

- confidentiality of patients health data is maintained or not

- whether a secure software is being used or not

- does the staffs have individual login IDs

- does the patient health data is transferred to any other institutions

2. Yes ,the EHR system with a secure health software and individual login ID can be used to share data among these different institutions more effectively and securely. For this to be established ,the organization should write a letter to the administration about benefits of usage of EHR system to transfer patient data safely and to make a policy to implement the same .

3. As a health informatics specialist , to determine about the security issues that need to be managed by the hospital , I will conduct a thorough survey about :-

- who all are using the EHR system

- when it is used after duty hours

- is the software secure or not

- does the staff using individual login IDs or not

- is there any interchange or exchange of login IDs.

- does the software is updated at proper intervals or not

- is there provision of backup support