NUR 514 DQ Discuss one ethical and one legal issue related to the use of EHRs that directly impact advanced registered nursing practice
NUR 514 DQ Discuss one ethical and one legal issue related to the use of EHRs that directly impact advanced registered nursing practice
NUR 514 DQ Discuss one ethical and one legal issue related to the use of EHRs that directly impact advanced registered nursing practice
Review HIPAA, protected health information (PHI), and requirements for privacy and confidentiality in EHRs. Discuss one ethical and one legal issue related to the use of EHRs that directly impact advanced registered nursing practice. Discuss possible consequences for compromising patient data and measures you can implement in your own practice to protect patient privacy and confidentiality.
Ethical and Legal Issues in EHR
Electronic Health Record (EHR) is increasingly being adopted in healthcare organizations to promote quality care. The operations of HER fall under certain guidelines as provided for under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) which outlines national standards in the use and dissemination of patient information. The standards are aimed at protecting sensitive information without the consent of a patient (Rouse, 2017). There are certain legal and ethical issues related to the use of EHR and directly impact on advanced nurse professional.
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A major ethical issue entails the privacy and confidentiality of patient’s information. The HIPAA Act requires that the patient’s information cannot be released to unauthorized parties without the consent of the patient. If EHR can function according to design, healthcare institutions and insurance companies among others need to have access to patient’s information (McBride et al., 2018). However, this may breach the aspect of privacy and confidentiality of patients’ data. Violating this ethical consideration can lead to dismissal from the nursing profession and applicable legal liabilities. One measure that can be used is to authorize access only to the relevant users of information depending on role-based privileges that have been pre-established.
Lack of accountability and responsibility in handling patient care can lead to legal issues. This subjects the medical practitioner to the claim of medical malpractice. The electronic system provides for a systematic review of diagnoses by various practitioners and can be tracked to the individual who made errors in the delivery of services. As opposed to paper-based records, EHR has an audit log that reveals evidence of malpractice (Mathai et al., 2017). The issue leads to the firing of the liable staff which may be followed by a claim of damages by the patient. This can be avoided by giving every practitioner their specific logins and restrict them to only diagnose on their area of specialization.
References
Mathai, N., Shiratudin, M. F., & Sohel, F. (2017). Electronic health record management: expectations, issues, and challenges. Journal of Health & Medical Informatics, 8(3), 1-5.
McBride, S., Tietze, M., Robichaux, C., Stokes, L., & Weber, E. (2018). Identifying and addressing ethical issues with use of electronic health records. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1).
Rouse, M. (2017). HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).