Information and technological advancements have significantly transformed virtually all sectors of operation in society. In most parts of the world, technology has penetrated every involvement in the medical sector, particularly in the practice of nursing such as the tracking of the clients’ records as well as the treatment of the patients (Hebda, Czar, &Mascara, 2008). Besides the fact that technology has been very beneficial in the field of nursing, it has not been without its challenges that have threatened to throw the practice of nursing into disarray. A number of key issues have emerged and the media industry has been very vocal in pointing out these problems. In this paper, the ramifications of technology on patient confidentiality and security are discussed. The paper concludes that advancement in technology has had greater implications on patients’ confidentiality and security today than it has ever had before.
A number of important issues have arisen due to advancements in information and technology. Among others, concerned parties have raised issues touching on privacy, security, and information integrity. In an attempt to address these problems, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was formulated (Sharie, 2002). This policy outlines the privacy and security rules that guarantee the protection of individually identifiable electronic health information. The HIPAA Privacy Rule in the U.S is under the responsibility of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) (Hebda et al., 2008).
In our nursing field, technology has facilitated the availability of necessary resources, instruments, as well as the ease of obtaining, maintaining, retrieving, and using the information in the course of providing healthcare services to the clients. However, instances of violations of the HIPAA rules have been witnessed. Monitoring of patient information is mainly done using the Nursing Workload Management System (NWMS) (Sharie, 2002) but the paperwork is still used. These management systems are interconnected across departments in the hospital and hence higher risks of insecurity of patients’ private information since they are available to more than one person (Hebda et al., 2008). This situation has proved to be one of the greatest challenges that nurses have to deal with in the highly technological age. Failure to protect individually identifiable electronic records has always resulted in court proceedings from the OCR after the client files a case against the health care providers.
I have witnessed many instances where the individually identifiable electronic records have failed to meet the standards stipulated by the HIPAA, particularly the exchange of information between the nurses and the doctors. This was facilitated by the lack of tight protection measures for the patients’ records. Due to the interconnection of the systems, some private information records have been accessed by the pharmacists and hence reaching other family members. This, according to HIPAA regulations, is an outright violation of an individual’s right to privacy. Some clients who find out that their private medical records have leaked to several people have launched legal proceedings with the OCR.
Moreover, there was a woman visiting her husband in the hospital. She went to the nurses’ working station for inquiry. The woman found a chart belonging to the husband’s roommate who had infections and she read the information contained in the chart. On realizing this, she demanded that her husband be transferred to another room. This amounted to the violation of the man’s right to privacy, particularly records of a medical condition. The HIPAA also stipulates that no one should discuss a patients’ illness in public, especially those who are entrusted to take care of the patient. Some of those in a teaching hospital are to violate this policy by openly discussing patients’ conditions.
A number of such cases dominated the media industry during the last decade of the 20th century as well as the earlier years of the first decade of the 21st century. This led to the introduction of strict privacy measures in the healthcare industry as far as the privacy of individually identifiable medical information is concerned (Hebda et al., 2008). Furthermore, the HIPAA Privacy Rules have also been revised to ensure maximum protection of its clients, particularly at this time of technological advancements.
References
Hebda, T., Czar, P., & Mascara, C. (2008). Handbook of informatics for nurses & health care professionals (4th ed.). Prentice-Hall
Sharie, L. N. (2002). Modern Computerized Nursing Data Management Systems. Springhouse Plc.