Essay NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy Security and Confidentiality Best Practices TS

NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy Security and Confidentiality Best Practices TS

NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy Security and Confidentiality Best Practices TS

NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy Security and Confidentiality Best Practices TS

Protected Health Information

All personally identifiable health information, including demographic information, health records, medical reports, insurance details, and some other information required to access a patient or to provide medical care or insurance, is designated protected health information. The term ‘protected’ denotes that the information is protected by the HIPAA Rules.   Protected health information doesn’t include the data kept on an individual by a covered organization in its capacity as an employer, only in its role as a healthcare provider in the event of an employee-patient (Brinson et al., 2020).  

Working in such tight proximity with patients and caregivers necessitates a high degree of trust. Exercising control on social media is a wonderful approach to strengthen that confidence. As health providers, one must use social networks carefully while providing useful information to patients/families as well as other professionals (Boards of Nursing, 2018).

NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy Security and Confidentiality Best Practices TS

Even if something is removed on social networks, it can still be retrieved. In a post, using a pseudonym, room number, prognosis, or disease of a patient is still a violation of privacy and confidentiality. Legal proceedings regarding social media postings may include suspension, expulsion, loss of nursing professional license, and jail sentence (Boards of Nursing, 2018).

Security, Privacy, and Confidentiality Laws Related to Protecting Sensitive Electronic Health Information

The responsibility to ensure the confidentiality of patient health information is sanctioned in each statewide legislature, as well as the minimally required standard under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), as updated by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) and expanded by the HIPAA Omnibus Act (2013). Because ACHE does not seek to give particular legal counsel regarding any state laws, all readers must examine their own state patient privacy law to ensure compliance with their law (Health Information Privacy Law and Policy | HealthIT.gov, 2018).

Mental health records cannot be disclosed without that need a patient’s consent (their “Approval”) for public disclosure, as well as any revelations that are not connected to therapy, payments, or administration, such as promotional materials. All practitioners should ensure that the Consent document adheres with HIPAA’s various requisites and also any relevant state legislation. Monetary penalties for breaches that have not been managed appropriately and promptly range from $50,000 to $1.5 million and can entail one year in jail. Present and projected employers are issued public warnings that they have been implicated in a HIPAA violation (Health Information Privacy Law and Policy | HealthIT.gov, 2018).

Importance of Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Safeguard Sensitive Electronic Health Information.

The responsibility to ensure the confidentiality of patient health information is sanctioned in each statewide legislature, as well as the minimally required standard under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), as updated by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) and expanded by the HIPAA Omnibus Act (2013). Because ACHE does not seek to give particular legal counsel regarding any state laws, all readers must examine their own state patient privacy law to ensure compliance with their law (Health Information Privacy Law and Policy | HealthIT.gov, 2018).

NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy Security and Confidentiality Best Practices TS

Mental health records cannot be disclosed without that need a patient’s consent (their “Approval”) for public disclosure, as well as any revelations that are not connected to therapy, payments, or administration, such as promotional materials. All practitioners should ensure that the Consent document adheres with HIPAA’s various requisites and also any relevant state legislation. Monetary penalties for breaches that have not been managed appropriately and promptly range from $50,000 to $1.5 million and can entail one year in jail. Present and projected employers are issued public warnings that they have been implicated in a HIPAA violation (Health Information Privacy Law and Policy | HealthIT.gov, 2018).

Importance of Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Safeguard Sensitive Electronic Health Information.

Persons with diverse professional skills provide expert knowledge and collaborate to address health care challenges in interdisciplinary health care teams. Interprofessional collaborative teams are efficient as they rely on different skills to treat complicated situations holistically. Aside from providing appropriate treatment, medical and health informatics have professional duties on teams. This function should be specified more precisely and shared with other professionals. Whenever an issue includes information and data, informaticians provide value by utilizing abilities in “biomedical information administration and usage.” (Brinson et al., 2020).

NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy Security and Confidentiality Best Practices TS

Health informaticians may help interprofessional teams at all stages of issue resolution, including problem assessment, solution creation, implementation, and evaluation. Furthermore, appropriately qualified health informaticians develop interprofessional cooperation and leadership skills, including the ability to lead and manage change. This is demonstrated by the inclusion of team capabilities in the requirements for HI accreditation and board certification.

Evidence-based approaches to mitigate risks to patients and healthcare staff related to sensitive electronic health information. 

National Research Council (US) Committee on Upholding Privacy and Security in Health Care Applications of the National Information Infrastructure has proposed many technical and evidence-based approaches to mitigate risks to patients and healthcare staff related to sensitive electronic health information (Health, 2018). These include: 

Authentication: Authentication which supports accountability, perimeter identification, access control, and comprehensibility. Examples include PIN and Biometric Validation NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 3 Annotated Bibliography on Technology in Nursing TS

Access control: Once a user has been recognized, the following task is to decide the person’s access to services and data. This necessitates defining access to certain software applications as well as specific data types (Holden et al., 2018).

Audit trails: Audit logs capture information access digital information such as the identification of the applicant, the time and date of the query, the destination IP address of the application, etc (Holden et al., 2018).

Physical security of communications, computer, and display systems: Physical security includes adequate precautions to minimize unauthorized access from obtaining access to an information technology system, such as computers, databases, and devices so that they cannot interfere with or obtain information from the infrastructure (Brinson et al., 2020).

Exercise of software discipline across the organization: One of the fundamental pillars of preserving health care information integrity is the correct operation and integrity of the organization’s computer software (Holden et al., 2018).

NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy Security and Confidentiality Best Practices TS

System backup and disaster recovery procedures: Alternative power sources and processing facilities must be available for the most important systems, and system file backups must be done regularly and media must be kept safe.

These types of practices address different combinations of the five key functional areas of technological intervention (Health, 2018).  

References 

Brinson, N. H., & Rutherford, D. N. (2020). Privacy and the quantified self: A review of US health information policy limitations related to wearable technologies. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 54(4), 1355-1374.

Health Information Privacy Law and Policy | HealthIT.gov. (2018). Healthit.gov. https://www.healthit.gov/topic/health-information-privacy-law-and-policy

Health. (2018). Technical Approaches to Protecting Electronic Health Information. Nih.gov; National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK233433/

Holden, R. J., Binkheder, S., Patel, J., & Viernes, S. (2018). Best Practices for Health Informatician Involvement in Interprofessional Health Care Teams. Applied clinical informatics, 9(1), 141–148. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0038-1626724

NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy Security and Confidentiality Best Practices TS

National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. (2018). A nurse’s guide to the use of social media [PDF]. https://www.ncsbn.org/NCSBN_SocialMedia.pdf

NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2 Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy Security and Confidentiality Best Practices TS