Question

Jan Geisler is the HIM director at Hillside Medical Center, The administration at Hillside has just approved the budget, which includes a new electronic health record. They assigned jan as the project manager and gave her the task of reviewing and selecting the company (vendor) with the EHR that best suits the hospital's needs. Jan immediatley thinks of her college roommate Ana. Ana also majored in HIM and now works for a large EHR vendor in california. Jan sends a quick e-mail to Ana to catch up and asks about her companys EHR system. Ana responds immediately with updated pictures of her family and some general informatio about the EHR her company sells. Ana offers for her company to fly Jan out to California so she can see the system and have a live demonstration. As an added bonus , Ana writes that she cannot wait to see her friend, take her to dinner, and catch up. Jan goes to California and enjoys her time with Ana, but she is a little disappointed with the EHR system. She just doesn't think it will meet the needs of her hospital. Jan has a meeting with the cheif information officer today and is expected to present her recommendations. She feels obligated to recommend Ana's company, but also has major concerns about their product. 1. What ethical issues can be found in Jan's investigation of EHR'S? 2. Was it a conflict of interest for Jan to do business with her personal friend Ana? 3. Using the ethical decision-making model described in this chapter, analyze the scenario and recommend a decision.

Answer 1

1.Some of the ethical issues which can be found by Jan in investigating a EHR are

• Implementation of the system may be expensive right from the maintainace, training, security
• There could be a chance of theft of patient privacy and confidentiality due to poor security system
• a security breaching is easily possible with the implemented software
• If there is lack of accuracy in the data

2.The conflict of interest exhibited here by Jan is by expressing her interest in opting for a vendor who is her friend to buy an EHR.She feels responsible or obligated to recommend her friend but simultaneously has a concern in regards to the EHR of Ana

3.An ethical decision which has to be made here is Jan must segregate her personal life from professional life.Because to be obligated to her friend she cannot recommend a software which doesn't fit her hospital requirements. Doing so is against ethical standards and intentionally making  hospital under threat of data breaching or easy cyber hack.Hence Jan being a project manager has to think professionally and opt for a better EHR system for overall benefits.She also stands responsible for explaining the reason or drawbacks in Ana's company's EHR .This will finally help to select the right vendor for EHR.