NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information PHI Privacy Security And Confidentiality Best Practices JJ

Protected Health Information (PHI)

Health professionals today have a duty to be accountable for patient or company information on social media due to Protected Health Information (PHI). Many government and regulatory agenciespromote and support privacy and security of data posted online by nurses. The Protected Health Information (PHI) refers to a medical record or database created by a healthcare professional or an organization while recording patients’ personal information. It may also include details of their diagnosis of treatment. Since social media use is aimed at improving patient-nurse communication; recently, a nurse has been terminated at our nursing home due to breach of organization’s social media posting policy. The fact remains that advances in technology and social media use has increased risks of protecting PHI. Therefore, this report aims at updating the staff related to privacy, security, and confidentiality best practices to ensure secure technology use in the nursing home. This update will help the staff to realize the importance of keeping their passwords secure while logging into public computers and share patient information only with authorized personnel instead of posting it on their private social media accounts. This staff update report aims to encourage the inter-professional team to protect the privacy, confidentiality, and security of patient information. NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practices JJ

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Importance of Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Safeguard Sensitive Electronic Health Information

Interdisciplinary collaboration is vital for ensuring the right implementation of all the privacy, security, and confidentiality practices to improve the quality of protecting patient health information. This means that the teams of nurses, doctors, administrators, and other hospital staff can effectively collaborate and communicate patient information without leaking it to make vital decisions (Berwick, 2018). These practices allow nursing homes to avoid possible violations of PHI rules related to social media postings and work according to HIPPA laws. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act were enacted in 1996 designed by the federal government to discourage and prohibit posting of patients’ personal information online. The HIPPA protects the rights of millions of American patients by safeguarding and protecting their personal information disclosed to healthcare professionals and organizations (Valdez, 2019).

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Security, Privacy, and Confidentiality Laws to Protect Sensitive Electronic Health Information

Moreover, the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (2005) have also emphasized the importance of using confidentiality principles according for ensuring PHI in healthcare settings. Such rules are vital for our nursing home to be aware of things that are prohibited by the law. According to Rothstein(2019), information privacy relates to controlling how nurses collect patients’ health information and disclose it to others using social media and other email tools. The PHI ensures that their personal data is proceed properly when transmitted (Kim Theodos, 2021). For instance, patients must be confident that healthcare organizations are protecting their rights of privacy by not uploading their data on social media. Moreover, confidentiality concept relates to use of patient’s information for the intended purposes only. This means patients must be confident that nursing homes use privacy and security management plans to prevent disclosure to information to third parties for personal gain. Therefore, only authorized nurses should have the patient information that should not be posted on the Internet for fun. Security principle means ensuring who is responsible for maintaining relevant laws in nursing homes to avoid compromise of PHI. For instance, the nurse who was terminated due to the breach of HIPPA laws was considered at fault when she collected personal information of a client and compromised its security.

NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practices JJ

Evidence-based Approaches to Mitigate Risks to Patients and Healthcare Staff

Many students and nurses face hazards of social media who violate patient privacy and confidentiality regulations. For instance, breach of privacy policy includes unapproved actions such as posting of patient photos, posting negative comments about patients, or posting personal details of patients on social media. The unprofessional behaviour involves posting comments related to drug or alcohol abuse, sexually explicit material, or posting negative comments about co-workers. Moreover, some nurses envious of their peers or colleagues may post incorrect comments according to their beliefs. According to Moore (2019), the HIPPA law allows posting patient’s nickname or room number; this information is harmless to disclose to the public Furthermore, another evidence-based strategy used by nursing homes is that nurses must not connect with old patients on social media for gaining popularity or use their personal information. Therefore, removing any inappropriate photos and negative comments about peers can help nurses to be judged as professionals (Theodos, 2021).

Staff Updates to Protect the Security, Privacy, and Confidentiality.

There are several ramifications of this unethical behavior of nurses such as complaints received by governing bodies, disciplinary action taken against nurses, or termination of their services due to breach of privacy and confidentiality rules.

Refrain from Posting Media on Social Media

Therefore, this means that the staff is fully prohibited by the law not to post any pictures, names, videos, or signatures of patients. . Therefore, our staff can protect them by remaining careful with social media use by keeping patient’s privacy and confidentiality.

Taking Photos is Prohibited

Moreover, the staffs are recommended to refrain from taking photos of patients or posting videos on You Tube or Facebook. This also includes making videos from smart phones.

Fine for Violation of confidentiality Policy

Moreover, the violation of HIPPA privacy regulations can result in a fine of $50,000 per violation and the criminal penalties can reach up to $250,000 or 10 years in a prison (Berwick, 2018). Moreover, in extreme cases, some nurses end up losing their licenses if federal or state laws are broken repeatedly.

Use of Strong Passwords 

Our organization has adopted the policy of never sharing passwords; never texting patient information, never access patient records for fun, and never carries patient records upon job changing to save nurses from trouble or breaches.

References 

Berwick, D. M., & Gaines, M. E. (2018). How HIPAA harms care, and how to stop it. Jama, 320(3), 229-230.

Kim Theodos, J. D. (2021). Health Information Privacy Laws in the Digital Age: HIPAA Doesn’t Apply. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 1-11.

Moore, W., & Frye, S. (2019). Review of HIPAA, part 1: history, protected health information, and privacy and security rules. Journal of nuclear medicine technology, 47(4), 269-272.

Rothstein, M. A., &Tovino, S. A. (2019). California takes the lead on data privacy law. Hastings Center Report, 49(5), 4-5.

Theodos, K., &Sittig, S. (2021). Health Information Privacy Laws in the Digital Age: HIPAA Doesn’t Apply. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 18(Winter). NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practices JJ

Valdez, B. (2019). Everyone Bleeds Guilty: Blood Draws for Law Enforcement Purposes in Light of the HIPAA Privacy Rule and Recent Supreme Court Decisions, 52 UIC J. Marshall L. Rev. 489 (2019). UIC John Marshall Law Review, 52(2), 7.