NR 512 Week 6 Discussion: Health IT Topic of the Week and Impact on Practice

NR 512 Week 6 Discussion: Health IT Topic of the Week and Impact on Practice – What was the HealthIT Topic you selected related to your specialty? Why did you select it? How will this impact your practice?

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NR 512 Week 6 Discussion: Health IT Topic of the Week and Impact on Practice

In my current practice setting at a rural, 300+ bed hospital, we have a number of measures to protect patient health information. Our IT department employs firewalls and maintains the security of our hospital Wifi. Audits are performed to monitor the accessing of patient charts, ensuring that they are being accessed for the correct reason and by appropriate staff. Whenever we click on a patient chart we have to either put that we are the patient’s nurse, charge nurse, or an auditor, for example. At every nurse’s station there is a shred box where we can safely dispose of excess paperwork that may have patient information on it. We also have mandatory online education to complete periodically that reviews how to keep patient information secure, appropriate actions and inappropriate actions, HIPAA guidelines, and the implications of not adhering to these rules. I think with today’s age of mass transfer of digital information the emphasis on protecting patient information cannot be enforced enough. When HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) was first initiated in 1996, the focus was mostly transferring of information from doctor to doctor, office to office, whereas now the focus over 20 years later is almost exclusively dedicated to protecting patient information (Dolan, 2014). While we live in an amazing time of electronic data capability, it comes with its own challenges with regards to safety and privacy.

NR 512 Week 6 Discussion: Health IT Topic of the Week and Impact on Practice References

Dolan, P. (2014). Protecting patient information. Ophthalmology Times, 39(10), 23-24.

I selected the topic of the safety and security of EMR (electronic medical record). Since we are now required to use EMR’s in all healthcare industries and they hold such private and confidential information I consider the security of them to be very important and needed topic of discussion. We live in a technological society where we hear about security breaches from the IRS, major department stores, social media, etc. With all of the security breaches out there the thought of having EMR’s breaches is devastating. EMR’s are the future of the healthcare industry and have truly changed the way in which we operate. EMR’s offer us means of storage and retrieval of legible medical information from anywhere at any time. EMR’s have given us additional safety mechanisms for prescriptions, labs results, medications and vital signs as well as decision support software to offer suggestions. Electronic records allow for instant retrieval of history and physical, lab results, diagnostic results, and progress notes from anyone who has provided care to the patient. These records contain was has been referred to as “a life” (Ozair et al., 2015). What is being done to protect them? Is it enough? Computer hackers may look at breaching an EMR as a golden prize which contains personal, financial, medical, and physical information about any one person. Will we be able to protect this confidential information that we require from our patients from getting into the wrong hands? While EMR’s are now the norm for the future of healthcare the cyber-security mythologies should also be thoroughly understood before moving forward (Kruse et al., 2017). This affects me as a human who has a right to confidentiality as well as my future as a nurse practitioner and my patient’s right to confidentiality. When these breaches happen, they can shut down entire networks and make vitally needed information unobtainable and inaccessible. These breaches can ruin countless lives and create mistrust of the healthcare community, which can lead to people not seeking needed care.

Kruse, C. S., Smith, B., Vanderlinden, H., & Nealand, A. (2017). Security Techniques for the Electronic Health Records. Retrieved March 30, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5522514/

Ozair, F. F., Jamshed, N., Sharma, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2015). Ethical issues in electronic health records: A general overview. Retrieved March 30, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394583/

In my current practice setting at a rural, 300+ bed hospital, we have a number of measures to protect patient health information. Our IT department employs firewalls and maintains the security of our hospital Wifi. Audits are performed to monitor the accessing of patient charts, ensuring that they are being accessed for the correct reason and by appropriate staff. Whenever we click on a patient chart we have to either put that we are the patient’s nurse, charge nurse, or an auditor, for example. At every nurse’s station there is a shred box where we can safely dispose of excess paperwork that may have patient information on it. We also have mandatory online education to complete periodically that reviews how to keep patient information secure, appropriate actions and inappropriate actions, HIPAA guidelines, and the implications of not adhering to these rules. I think with today’s age of mass transfer of digital information the emphasis on protecting patient information cannot be enforced enough. When HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) was first initiated in 1996, the focus was mostly transferring of information from doctor to doctor, office to office, whereas now the focus over 20 years later is almost exclusively dedicated to protecting patient information (Dolan, 2014). While we live in an amazing time of electronic data capability, it comes with its own challenges with regards to safety and privacy.

References

Dolan, P. (2014). Protecting patient information. Ophthalmology Times, 39(10), 23-24.