The document discusses the importance of confidentiality training for healthcare workers. It notes that staff must uphold ethical and legal standards to protect patient privacy and information security, especially with new technologies. Specific laws like HIPAA are mentioned which set guidelines for appropriate access and sharing of electronic health records. The training should remind staff of these laws and that all medical files must remain private and confidential to ensure ethical workplace behavior.
2. “Health employees, especially those who are asked to
manage such sensitive data as patient records, must
have the ethical responsibility and wisdom to uphold the
laws that protect the appropriate and authorized usage,
access, and exchange of patient information within our
dynamic, innovative technological environment”
(Wolper, 2011, p. 389).
3. The truth of the matter is, the hospital staff knew what
they were doing was wrong. Being in a place like Los
Angeles, it should be expected that there be a high
volume of celebrity and high profile patients so there
should not be a feeling of being star struck. There is a
feeling that the staff felt that because the patient was a
celebrity that all aspects of their life should be public
knowledge, which is not the case.
The issue here is the staff had no respect, or ethical
responsibility, for the patient’s personal, health related
information.
4. The training should revolve around reiterating the laws
the staff were introduced to during their schooling. One
such law is the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPPA), Public Law 104-
191, which required the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) to establish new guidelines and
national standards for handling electronic healthcare
transactions (Wolper, 2011, p. 389).
This law applies to hospital staff, nursing home
staff, private practice staff, basically any individual who
works in the health care industry.
5. To reinforce HIPAA compliance, HHS has put seven
steps in place that healthcare service organizations must
follow. These steps are:
•access control;
•encrypt private health data;
•integrity control;
•authentication;
•audit control;
•alarms; and
•event reporting (Wolper, 2011, p. 391).
6. This training will be effective to employees by
reminding them that all medical files should remain
confidential and be treated with respect. At the end of
this training the employees should be able to recognize
what is ethical behavior in the workplace and what is
not.
7. References
Over 120 UCLA Hospital Staff Saw Celebrity Health
Records. Retrieved January 16, 2012 from
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,398784,00.ht
ml.
Wolper, L.F. (2011). Health care
administration: Managing organized delivery
systems (5th ed.). Boston: Jones and Bartlett.
