Regardless of the job, we are part of a team that is dedicated to patient care. When obtaining health care, patients give personal, often sensitive, information about themselves to their health care provide, which they trust will remain confidential. Employees of this institution help to ensure the patient health information is handled in a confidential manner. A breech of our patients’ trust or “breech of confidentiality” may be a violation of law and may result in serious penalties. A breech of confidentiality can occur when patient health information is shared with other who are not authorized by their job to do so, regardless of whether that information is shared by mouth, by paper, or by computer or fax.
Confidentiality is a concept of vast importance for professionals in the medical field. It is a professional obligation in this field and is considered to be an ethical concept that falls in line with integrity, compassion, veracity, charity, and fidelity as explained in both the International Council of Nurses Code for Nurses (1973) and the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics (1985). However, in today’s ever growing world of technology and demand for information, challenges continue to arise that force doctors and nurses to reexamine virtues such as confidentiality.
Disclosing confidential patient information without patient consent can happen in the health care field quite often and is the basis for many cases brought against health care facilities. There are many ways confidential information gets into the wrong hands and this paper explores some of those ways and how that can be prevented.
In the health care business, there are certain standards and laws that have been put in place to protect our patients and their personal health information. When a health care facility fails to protect their patient’s confidential information, the US Government may get involved and facilities may be forced to pay huge sums of money in fines, and risk damaging their reputation.
Seeing information about a healthcare user in such terms makes me realise that some information is not necessarily in the public domain and therefore I have a privilege and responsibility to not only care for the patient but also for the knowledge about them that I am privy to. I realise that, although I have a duty to retain confidentiality, I may be placed in a position where the confidence has to also include other healthcare professionals and I need to involve the patient in such a situation (ibid).
As a member of a medical professional team, you will work closely with many physicians. As you have read this week, guarding the physician-patient relationship is serious business.In this assignment you will practice what you have learned in chapters 5 and 7 in the Medical Law and Ethics textbook: * Federal privacy laws that pertain to healthcare and the "Patient's Bill of Rights" * Privacy, confidentiality, and privileged communications * Filing birth and death certificates * Examples of communicable diseases which must be reported to local, state and/or federal
Care providers strive to provide care that is patient focused that maintains confidentiality and respect. This paper is about the maintenance of patient confidentiality and the trusting relationships that must be maintained between the patient and the healthcare providers.
Finding out that people blame doctors for when their patient commits a crime puts my mind in utter disbelief. The law of patient confidentiality clearly states that the physician must keep all information a patient informs them in confidence, unless it acquires serious medical care, but if the doctor breaches the confidentiality by informing a third party without the patient’s consent, he or she could be sued. Doctor-patient confidentiality is based on the belief that a person should not be worried about seeking medical treatment in alarm that his or her problem will be shown to others. The objective of the relationship between the patient and their doctor is to make patients feel as comfortable as possible by providing them with any information they way need about their symptoms. This helps the doctor to make a correct diagnosis, and overall helping the patient feel comfortable enough to trust their doctor so that they may receive the best care. Once a physician takes a patient on, they must keep all the patient says and does in confidence; moreover, he cannot inform any third party of the patients wellbeing, but there are some exceptions like if the patient intends on causing harm to oneself or other or if it is an issue in a lawsuit. The court system claims A patient must have full confidence that their doctor will be able to keep all his or her medical issues private which helps the patient trust their physician. The professional duty of confidentiality not only covers
Disclosure for direct patient care emphasizes the importance of limiting the exposure of health care information of a patient to only the one offering treatment. Although physicians are not required to receive their patient’s authorization, others healthcare workers, such as billers, coders, and front desk staff, are not allow to gain access to patient’s health information. In my opinion, this disclosure is essential to those whose careers are in the medical field. My mother is a registered nurse at the same hospital I was admitted to multiple of times for several unexpected emergencies. Although her coworkers shown concern, my personal information, lab results, and the treatments are confidential and only my mother and my physician are allow to see this private information. Several of years later, when I moved from New Jersey to Maryland, I felt comfortable having control of my health information by being asked to call my old physician to fax my health records to my new general physician. After calling, they also required my new physician to send a fax to them with my signature ensuring that my information is secured and only the new physician who is responsible for my care receives and reviews it. A
Health care professionals are subject to a multitude of professional, legal, and ethical responsibilities which call for personal judgment to be utilized in such a manner as to protect clients as well as public wellness and interests. Overall considerations in handling such duties may be considered to be respect of a client’s autonomy, confidence, and recognition of obligations owed to all clients. While the aforementioned acts fall within the professional realm, there are also legal implications that guide care. Therefore, it can be said that ethical considerations occur in observation of legal responsibilities. Confidential information is perceived as private facts which are disclosed with the
Disclosing patient information to a third party, without a patient’s consent or a court order is considered a breach of confidentiality. Legal liability for a breach of confidentiality covers a broader spectrum than ethical guidelines, which lend to doing what is morally right. Confidentiality in nursing comes with an ethical need for creating rapport with patients. Trust established facilitates increased communication and comfort for discussing personal information. There are some exceptions in terms of patient confidentiality; they are ethically and legally justified as a result of social considerations that are overriding. For example, exceptions are made upon
This first case is about a hospital that implements new polices for telephone messages about patients PHI. In this case a hospital employee left a in depth phone message with a patient’s daughter about both her health situation and her treatment proposal. After an inspection, it was specified that the confidential communications requirements were not followed, when it was noted that the patient left directions to be contact on her work phone, but the worker instead left the message at the patient’s home phone number.
The subject that I have chosen to write about is if teenagers should have the right to confidential healthcare and the right to make their own medical decisions? While using the Palomar College databases I found three different sources that I can incorporate into my essay, which are the following “Confidential Health Care for Teens Is Good Policy”, “When are we mature enough to make life-or-death decisions about our body?”, and “Parents Have the Right to Oversee Their Children’s Health Care”.
The popular belief among our society has always been “Parents know what's best”. While their kids are young, parents know how to make their medical decisions for them. Parents know what's best for their children, they know how to keep them safe and healthy. However, their children soon turn into teenagers who should be trusted to make their own choices regarding their health care. They’re no longer the children they once were; they can comprehend the extension of every decision they make. Services and treatments should not be restricted to them because of their age or need for parental consent. Teenagers should be given confidential health care and should be trusted to make the choices that regard themselves. They should be allowed the privacy from everyone, including their parents make those choices.
Healthcare has become more accessible as mobile technology becomes more powerful and reliable. Accessing your healthcare information is as easy as ordering a pizza. More and more health care professionals are using laptops, smartphones, Wi-Fi networks, and tablets to provide resources to the community. This is why patient confidentiality has become a priority when using these mediums of communication. There are some precautions that we can take away to prevent data breach. The risk of data breach varies on the mobile device and the use of such. Some of the risk may include:
Other concerns are conversations within the hospital cafeterias/lobbies about patients and their families, and employees sharing information throughout the hallways without a “need to know.” Once employees discover their colleagues looking at patient information without a “need to know basis,” and, other wrong doings according to the agency’s standards, their own sense of what is right and wrong instantly comes into question. Reporting the unethical behavior, the employee who had discovered the violations of patient rights is presented with a number of difficult choices. The legal basis for imposing liability for a breach of confidentiality is more extensive than ethical guidelines, which dictate the morally right thing to do.