Ethical Considerations for Healthcare Organizations

Question 1 

For the delivery of responsible and compassionate patient care, several ethical considerations have to be taken into account. One of the key ethical considerations is patient confidentiality. Data regarding or concerning a patient’s health should not be treated as public information. The violation of a patient’s confidentiality has an effect on their legal and ethical consequences (Rao, 2020). This includes the form of information that may be shared and who it can be released to. Another ethical consideration is patient relationships as providers of care have an ethical obligation to maintain a professional relationship with the patients they treat while they are receiving care and treatment (Rao, 2020). Personal relationships with patients are viewed as violating the rights of the individual involved. Another key ethical consideration is informed consent. In all forms of care that are identified as legal, patients have to provide their care workers with informed consent. Informed consent means that patients should display full agreements to treatments and procedures with all the knowledge they need concerning risks and benefits. 

Question 2 

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule is a law that establishes a platform for protecting specific identifiable health information (Assistance, 2003). This rule provides general permission but does not require care providers with the obligation of requesting permission from the patients to disclose their information for critical purposes. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) Omnibus Rule is also a regulation that extends compliance with HIPAA with the inclusion of business associate agreements (Congress, 2009). The Patriot Act is also a regulation that can be targeted at protected health information (PHI) or systems which structure, store and management this form of information (LeBron et al., 2018). Through the Patriot Act, healthcare providers would be expected to comply and disclose personal information. 

Question 3 

Healthcare providers are required to protect confidential information concerning patients unless required by the law to disclose the information. Hence, several additional strategies can be taken to ensure that they avoid a lawsuit. One of these strategies is the set-up of additional workplace security and privacy policies in the protection of confidential patient information. These security and privacy policies should be specifically structured to increase the protection of private health information (Els et al., 2017). The second strategy is to structure a training program to enhance the understanding and compliance of employees with HIPAA rules and regulations. Through this training, all members of staff will have the information that they need to strictly follow existing HIPAA rules and avoid any lawsuit. 

The third strategy that can be applied is the implementation of reasonable safeguards to limit incidental uses or disclosures while avoiding patient disclosure violations. Patients act as the last determiner of what information has to be shared or disclosed to other parties. Establishing clear safeguards will ensure that confidential information is appropriately stored and is in accordance with existing workplace policies. 

Question 4 

To prepare patient documents before releasing them to a court, a human services agency has to ensure that the request is ordered and signed by a judge. As according to HIPAA regulation, the agency should also have authorization from the patient before releasing their personal health information and records (Assistance, 2003). This authorization should involve elements and statements as needed by the HIPAA Privacy Rule. 

Human services agencies should ensure that they only disclose the information that is requested and nothing more. This will involve assessing the subpoena to assess the information that is being requested and be sure to only present what is requested. 

References 

Assistance, H. C. (2003). Summary of the HIPAA privacy rule. Office for Civil Rights . 

Congress, U. S. (2009). Health information technology for economic and clinical health act.  US Department of Health and Human Services . 

Els, F., & Cilliers, L. (2017, March). Improving the information security of personal electronic health records to protect a patient's health information. In  2017 Conference on Information Communication Technology and Society (ICTAS)  (pp. 1-6). IEEE. 

LeBrón, A. M., Lopez, W. D., Cowan, K., Novak, N. L., Temrowski, O., Ibarra-Frayre, M., & Delva, J. (2018). Restrictive ID policies: implications for health equity.  Journal of immigrant and minority health ,  20 (2), 255-260. 

Rao, P. R. (2020, June). Ethical considerations for healthcare organizations. In  Seminars in Speech and Language  (Vol. 41, No. 03, pp. 266-278). Thieme Medical Publishers.