Ethical issues to consider in regards to the Electronic Healthcare Record:
HIPAA stands for Health Information Portability and Accountability Act was enacted in 1996 to serve as a security regulation to protect the privacy of our health information. The Act in and of itself is reflecting the principle of beneficence by actively protecting the rights of patients. To conform to the ethical principle of veracity, consequences of violating the regulations of this Act were enacted within all facilities that care for patients. The consequences for violation vary from one institution to another and depend on the severity of intent upon the individual. Most breaches in security are nonmaleficence in nature and warnings and education are standard procedure for reprimands. I believe most users conform to their duty to protect patient’s rights and conform to the set of regulations in place. There is always room for technological improvements to the system and with time these enhancements will be enacted.
Who owns the Electronic Health Record?
After my initial post of believing that the software organization or institution controls ownership I have revised my views. I believe as a patient we are the ultimate owner and the other organizations share dual ownership. I believe as a patient we feel that our records are a coveted commodity and we are only allowed limited access. The truth is we can easily gain copies of our records.
Maintaining EHR’s requires a committment by the organization who uses them so it stands to reason that they have control over the records. In addition the organization must follow privacy rules that add additional costs to maintain compliance. As a society we are in a position to entrust our health to technology, and as new advances are made to our health care administration and access to our records we have to question how well our information is protected and who is viewing our records.
Future of nursing informatics:
Many of the technologies that we are seeing now will be expanded upon for the future such as the vast amount of knowledge that is accessible to the medical field. Information is readily available via internet, really simple syndication, blogs, podcasts, wireless capabilities, etc. I can foresee the use of voice activated documenting, and more hands free scanning devices utilized in the future as a time-saving tool. Additionally I foresee ways to gain access to knowledge at the patient bedside more readily available and utilized within the software currently being used. I believe the technology to prevent diseases will always be the goal of our industry as well as preventing errors via medication or diagnosis. Our goal as health care providers should be to be proactive and seek out information and utilize the technology available. The field of medicine and it’s implementation is a fascinating and evolving world and one that has seen profound growth. We should view the explosion of technology not as a challenge but as an opportunity to enhance the health and well-being of our population.
