Patient Safety Compliance Case Study

Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (PSQIA) was signed into law on July 29, 2005, published on November 21, 2008 and became effective on January 19, 2009 (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d). PSQIA catalyzes sharing of healthcare data, information and patient safety practices between health care organizations by creating Patient Safety Organizations (PSO). Providers can report or share information related to patient safety events with PSO without the fears of liability, because “ PSQIA provides federal privilege and confidentiality protections for patient safety information, called patient safety work product” (USDHMS, n.d ). This means protected information cannot be introduced in any federal, state, local, or tribal civil,

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.

In order to minimize the risks for potential privacy breaches, the health information management (HIM) director has to understand all facets of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). This should include conducting an audit of their practices. In this scenario, an audit would have been useful to detect the improper access by the employee sooner. HIPAA uses both its privacy and security regulations to “protect consumer’s health information, allow consumers greater access and control to such information, enhance health care, and finally to create a national framework for health care privacy protection” (Amaguin, n.d.). These privacy and security regulations serve as the “only national set of regulations that governs

There are laws in place that protect a patient in the health care setting. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 or HIPAA, as it is known in the healthcare field, was designed to protect the privacy,confidentiality and security of patient information (Pozgar, 2013).Employees the health care field are very aware of HIPAA and the rights of their patients. All staff knows that patient information can only be discussed with qualified individuals on a need to know basis. Speaking about cases outside of work is strictly prohibited. Photography or recording of any patient interaction is also a breach of a patient's rights as well. The problem with this is that there are many policies in place to protect the

Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) is the protection of patient’s private health information. It’s very pertinent to the patients that their personal information is being kept privately away from unauthorized viewers. Patients are allowed to have access to their own health records if they request them. Workers that has access to protected health information are required by law to secure all information in a file and not share with anyone any information that is not relevant to them. You should always know whom to disclosed the proper protected health information to when necessary. There are safeguards that can help with ensuring the security and protection of the protected health information, while the information is being transmitted or stored in its proper place.

The significance of patient privacy and the security of confidential information are increasingly vital given the approval of electronic health records. Healthcare providers have recognized striking prices due to security threats and subsequent breaches. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2002), under the Privacy Rule healthcare establishments must establish protections that establish procedures and rules that guarantee least levels of privacy in relation to patient information. When violations are recognized, it is required that a compliant be created by the individual or unit experiencing the violation. In the complaint, the name of the person who participated in the violation, in addition to the nature of the violation, must be comprehensive. The filing of the complaint initiates an investigation by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under HIPAA values (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013). The establishment of a procedure related to privacy violations has resulted in many cases relating to electronic data breaches. Next is a consideration of two such cases to demonstrate the role of privacy in regards to HIPAA and electronic health database breaches.

Research identity-theft cases from medical offices.Explain the case and prepare a one-page paper on prevention strategies based on the case found.

Such an instance may occur if a patient knew an employee was looking at his/her health information. If someone calls in a complaint, the instances requires an immediate investigation. The investigation will begin by the privacy manager going into the system in order to run a check to see what information the employee was accessing. If this check shows the employee had not accessed the complainant’s information than the investigation is ended. However, every initial complaint is taken serious and is reviewed immediately.

In the world of technology there are many types of threats to be considered when a hospital or health care facility depends on keeping their clients personal information private and safe from unauthorized people from viewing. When information safety, and regulations are considered by a healthcare facility it is held at high regards and high standards to assure that there is no chance of any information being leaked that should have been protected. A patients personal information should be kept safe from any unauthorized person from viewing, because a patients personal medical records can be used maliciously if it is viewed by anyone who is not authorized to view the information.

As we have learned the term “break the glass” in class, I feel that it is important to understand when and how to approach a situation when this type of access is acceptable. For example, a patient that is presented in the ED may need to have their personal health information accessed without authorization by the patient. This may be due to the condition of the patient presenting to be incompetent to give consent to their PHI. Therefore, all employees need to understand how to handle emergency situations when they are presented. Overall, the delivery of care to the patient and best outcome results are what is an important to providing the best quality of

One of the ways that patient information can be used illegally is through organized crime and gangs. This type of crime is rising tremendously. They are stealing patient names, addresses, social security numbers, birth dates and using it to steal identities. The credit card information can also be obtained this way.

The department of Health and Human Services protects and guides the health and well being of individuals here in America (Thacker, 2014). They fulfill these duties providing Americans with adequate and efficient health and human services and monitoring services designed to increase the efficiency of care in the health system (Thacker, 2014). One of the services being monitored by the department of Health and Human Services is the electronic health record system, which carries private and vital information of patient’s health record enabling all eligible participating health workers access to these records (Thacker, 2014). A breach of the protective health information of patients in a health organization creates chaos as these are against the health insurance portability and accountability (HIPAA) law (Thacker, 2014). Hence, measure will have to be put in place to determine what caused the breach and how to rectify it to ensure the breach never happens again (Thacker, 2014).

Patient safety and care is very important. Now, inability to receive patient alerts directly to communication device will prolong time taken to attend to patient. If a patient telemetry alerts were called into the unit floor from a central monitoring station, lots of steps are taken before the nurse finally receives the alert (NCH Healthcare System, 2015). It also takes time for nurse to attend or respond to patients call lights or alarm system due to so many other patients and work they have to do. The patient could be at risk for fall and getting out of bed due to nurses not responding could lead to fall (NCH Healthcare System, 2015).

In every health care position keeping a patients’ personal information confidential is important in all areas. All health care providers are required to sign forms in an agreement and understanding of the rules and procedures on to protect against disclosing a client’s personal information. While dealing with confidential health informational employers are required to make sure is provide education on the laws and understanding of confidentiality, because the health care environment is always changing. To better prepare all staff for the risk of exposing a client’s confidential information without consent. Even though a client’s privacy is protected by law, the confidentiality agreement can be breached, that is why it is important to protect a client’s information from being misused. Where there are many risks involving confidentiality, there are ways of protecting and preventing wrongful disclosing of a client’s personal health information. When working with a client’s personal information keeping it confidential is one of the many important things inn being a great health care provider.