Introduction
In general, the medical field very often faces the problem of the confidentiality of its patients. One of the pillars of medical ethics has to do with the aspect of secrecy that must remain between doctor and patient. Revealing this secret under different circumstances can harm patients’ family life and careers or make them look bad in court. Confidentiality is a legal aspect in this regard; sometimes, doctors are faced with the problem of presenting medical records to legal professionals. Often the issue of confidentiality exists not only in the context of unnecessarily dangerous situations of providing information to third parties but also in regular times: the administration must provide a reliable repository for patient data.
Wrongful Disclosure of Individually Identifiable Health Information
The abstract ethical issue of privacy in this law becomes tangible and concrete. Patients are puzzled by whether they can trust the complex schemes that store detailed information about them in hospitals. Most people arrive at hospitals in a state of fright, shock, or at least serious concern. Often they do not care about the issues of concluding contracts or any other papers, especially for emergency care.
An Overview of the Policy
Patients expect their personal information to be stored and disclosed understandably through transparent schemes. A separate problem is permission to use this information by the patients themselves and the issuance of hospital data. To patients, judging by this logic, it seems that the hospital administration is trying to protect their data from themselves, which is considered absurd. Last year, it was concluded that patients should receive information about themselves on their first request (Salmi et al., 2021). It applies only to personal data and does not include family members’ or spouses’ data.
Violations
Disclosure of patients’ data is usually very severely punished, but factors of ignorance, willfulness, and self-interest are considered. If it is proven during the trial that a doctor or a hospital administrator was trying to profit from or sell the data transmission, the fine and jail time could be seriously increased. The law in question also prohibits using a patient’s unique health identifier (or assistance and provision for another person to use this identifier). As you can see, we are talking about the information that can personally reveal the patient’s figure. It is essential to maintain the confidentiality of marital status, place of work, and personal life (sexual orientation, experience of violence, mental problems). Medical data that can help, for example, students to study diseases, especially severe cases or rare cases, are not included in this list. However, it is also often necessary to inform the patient that specialists will use the information about his disease for demonstration purposes in training future doctors.
Sanctions and Punishment
The table shows specific sanctions that apply to doctors and administrators who neglect personal data. The court almost always takes the side of the victims since it was their privacy that people violated. Privacy, personal space, and freedom are highly valued in democratic regimes such as the US, so disobeying this law is contrary to the fundamental truths of the United States.
Implications of Data Disclosure for Victims
For patients, disclosing personal data, such as complaints and past illnesses, can collapse a career or family life. Such patients often face condemnation and loneliness afterward, having lost faith in the whole healthcare institution and being unable to regain trust in the future. Being fired from a job that was the only income, divorced from a spouse, and rejection by friends and relatives are some parts of what a deceived victim may face. It is where people can approach the problem of health education, as most health workers understand that people know little about various diseases. Ignorance, in many ways, generates stigma because people do not know how to contract certain conditions; they consider something incurable that has been treatable for the last few years.
General Recommendations
Allowing patients to view their data will only play into the hands of doctors and administrators, as it will share the responsibility (symbolically) for storing information between the patient and the hospital employee. Patients deserve a detailed explanation of their rights when admitted to the hospital. However, workers should never forget that most of them find themselves in complicated situations and are worried; therefore, they cannot focus on legal and organizational issues. Then, perhaps, you should resort to the help of their relatives, who can vouch for and represent the interests of patients. Encryption mechanisms are now used in many areas, especially electronic cards; this is usually of great benefit. Patients will trust a system they understand, and that’s what transparency is.
Conclusion
It is necessary to attract programmers to work in hospitals to facilitate the work with electronic medical records. They can work in the support service and advise both doctors and patients. Often, doctors do not understand how electronic health cards work, and they cannot explain the complex mechanism to patients (Finkelstein, 2017). The collective work of specialists from different fields is necessary so that patients feel cared for and safe.
References
Finkelstein, M. M. (2017). Redefining the “Legal medical record” and how to be prepared to respond to legal requests for a patient’s legal medical record. Medical Practice Management.
Salmi, L., Blease, C, Hagglund, M., Walker, J., DesRoches, C. M. (2021). US Policy Requires Immediate Release of Records to Patients. BMJ, 372.
Wrongful Disclosure of Individually Identifiable Health Information, 42 U.S.C. § 1320d–6 (2010).