Surviving Current Trends Affecting the Workplace

Despite the attainability of secure electronic data transfer, many healthcare providers continue and prefer to store medical information on paper, making it difficult to share information among doctors

Health information management, also known as HIM, has been acknowledged as an allied health profession since 1928. HIM is a profession dedicated to the effective management of patient information and healthcare data needed to deliver quality treatment and care to the public. The original objective was to elevate the standards of clinical recordkeeping in hospitals, dispensaries, and other healthcare facilities (Sayles, 2014). Today HIM is known as the American Health Information Management Association or AHIMA. It still holds similar underlying purposes: to ensure the quality, confidentiality, and availability of health information across diverse organizations, settings, and disciplines (Sayles, 2014). HIM plays a critical role in the successful implementation of electronic health records and ensures that providers, healthcare organizations, and patients have access to the right health information when and where it is needed while maintaining the highest standards of data integrity, confidentiality, and security. It ensures compliance with legal mandates, but it has proven to be a challenge with the constant change in legislation and regulatory environment. Past surveys suggest that HIM plays some type of importance in accordance to HIPAA privacy and security compliance. In a 2006 AHIMA survey, members were asked about the progress of their organizations’ privacy and security compliance efforts. Margret Amatayakul & Mitch Work discuss those results in a 2007 journal article

Although the EHR is still in a transitional state, this major shift that electronic medical records are taking is bringing many concerns to the table. Two concerns at the top of the list are privacy and standardization issues. In 1996, U.S. Congress enacted a non-for-profit organization called Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This law establishes national standards for privacy and security of health information. HIPAA deals with information standards, data integrity, confidentiality, accessing and handling your medical information. They also were designed to guarantee transferred information be protected from one facility to the next (Meridan, 2007). But even with the HIPAA privacy rules, they too have their shortcomings. HIPAA can’t fully safeguard the limitations of who’s accessible to your information. A short stay at your local

Modern communications capabilities open up a world of possibilities for all types of medical practices to develop deeper connections with their patients and to manage health care remotely. The HIPAA Privacy Rule gives patients the right to obtain copies of their medical records, treatments and protected health information or PHI. These requirements go further if medical providers want to receive reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid -- patients must be able to access their records online, download copies and transmit the information to third-party providers. Most medical practices are finding it necessary to develop patient portals where patients and physicians can interact, share information and perform important functions such as practices billing patients and accepting payments online. HIPAA 's rules require that these patient portals have strong security and privacy protections to prevent unauthorized access of these confidential PHI records.

Changes in current health care practices, the aging baby-boomer population, and the higher acuity of patients has created a need for change and adaptability with the health care industry. Kaiser is an organization who has shown the ability to continuously change in order to reduce costs while improving efficient quality patient care. The investment on information technology (IT) advancements such as the implantation of electronic health records (EHRs) and use of a patient portal system is one way the organization has shown readiness to meet the health care needs of patients. KP in collaboration with five other healthcare organizations created a Care Connectivity Consortium, enabling secure electronic retrieval of current

As health professionals, it’s essential to take every precaution to protect sensitive patient information including personal contact information and medical history. Patient data is regulated by the government and provides privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information. The law that regulates these processes, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), has become a prominent point of public discussion over recent years due to an onslaught of security concerns and cyberattacks on health providers and insurers.

As the emergence of electronic health records (EHRs), the subject of transforming the delivery method of healthcare is prominent in the United States. The use of EHRs is a major key in the way physicians practice in healthcare organizations through communication and management of patient information. Henricks (2011) points out that EHRs are a part of an objective aimed at improving all aspects of health care and reducing health disparities, making the healthcare of patients and families appealing to them, refining the direction of healthcare, along with population and public health improvement, continuation of privacy maintenance and the security of health information, and finally reducing costs. In the perspective of health information technology

Technology: advancements of technological adaptation has made employment obsolete. No longer is there a need to educate and train employees for positions that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can do. Companies are paying more for research and development (R&D) into technological advances to increase their bottom line as employee salaries are a company’s highest expense (American Sociological Association, 2013).

As has been true with the transition from paper to electronic medical records, health care providers will need to adapt their privacy and security practices in response to the specific privacy risks and compliance challenges associated with various forms of telemedicine.  Depending on the nature of the telemedicine services being provided, this may require updating policies and security risk

In the last 13 years, as with all aspects of the medical field the responsibilities of the privacy officer have grown as new policies, technology, and data-sharing programs have evolved (Dimick, 2012, p. 21). The privacy officer needs to be knowledgeable about all aspects of the facility and have administration over the facility’s computer system to guard against privacy violations (Gillin, 2002). With the ongoing advancements of today’s technologies it is important that the privacy officer “be current on emerging technologies and the impact they can have on patient privacy” (Dimick, 2012, p.

In some cases, the unpreparedness of most physicians to use new technologies, may raise another problem. This would be difficult when attempting to meaningfully use the system properly. A great way to leverage EHR to improve quality is to achieve meaningful use. For example, “the emergence of electronic health records (EHRs) also is complicating organizational efforts to define and disclose information [3].” By implementing and putting EHRs into action, it will benefit providers not just financially but also by reducing medical errors, and increasing the availability of records and data. The 2016 Report to Congress on HIT Progress stated that “many health care providers still face challenges accessing and viewing individuals’ electronic health information for a variety of reasons, including confusion about privacy and security considerations, cumbersome enrollment processes, or complex contracts with technology vendors [6].” Furthermore, meaningful use also elevates in legal issues, such as privacy threats on patients and data breaches. These may happen because electronic documents and electronic use of medical information could get exposed as they get implemented in health care services. In this case, private information of

​Within this assignment on Trends In The Workplace I will discuss different issues that we see within the work environment. I will be demonstrating what I’ve learned over these last few weeks within HRM500 course. I’ve learned the important key functional areas of Human Resources Management which I will be discussing within my paper. Here are the key points in which I will be discussing within my paper: four federal equal employment opportunity laws, three significant trends affecting organizations today, and discussing workplace flexibility within a current or previous employment.

2002) Critical aspects of security, privacy and accurate identification of patients must be addressed, as well as compliance with government regulations (Ch5). Additionally, designers must take special care to insure that the language used in presenting personal health data enhances the patient’s understanding of his or her health concerns. Many of these portals also provide secure messaging systems, allowing patients to communicate concerns about their clinical record to their health care providers. One article comparing four patient portals (Halamka et al. 2008) demonstrated the challenges and opportunities associated with deploying this technology, noting important issues such as authentication, policies around minors desiring patient portal access to a PHR, decision about how much of the EAHR should be available, and a host of other issues. This article, as well as two by Osborn et al. (2010, 2011) articulates the pervasive way that even simple shifts from a provider-centric to patient-centric view precipitates ripples in the process and culture of health care

Effective leaders of my age are faced with a few challenges, quite a few actually. One being the generational divide that currently exists between four different workplace peer groups: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, my age group of Generation X, and Millennials. Aside from increased global diversity, our workforce has mushroomed with generational cultures as well. Young associates of today are the future leaders of tomorrow, yet there is an obligation to honor the long-term commitment of our older associates. When bridging these distinct generations,

When it comes to Millennials, there is nothing that screams “business as usual.” Consequently, savvy leaders who want to remain successful in the global business arena, must concede their current method of attracting, engaging, developing and retaining Millennials as future global leaders is ineffective. Therefore, today’s leaders must develop a more compelling strategy to entice Millennials into leadership. Failure to use strategic foresight to recognize trends regarding future organizational trends and take timely actions to change their tried and true, old school philosophy regarding developing and retaining talented employees will result in losing the competitive edge, which is driven by technology-laden Millennial’s who are poised to innovation.