The implementation of electronic physician records in healthcare settings is associated with numerous advantages, but in some cases, there are ethical and legal issues that may arise concerning the use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). According to Wells (2018), the application of the efficiencies of EHRs violates the standard provisions of bioethical tenets in various ways, including breaching the principle of respect and autonomy. The named rule that is expected to guide the nursing practice by empowering the decision making of practitioners to ensure that in the process of delivering services, nurses execute their duties towards patients in a manner that does not breach client consent. However, the implementation of EHRs predisposes patient health information to unauthorized access, which may result in confidentiality breaches that remain unknown to patients.
Additionally, electronic physician records violate the nursing principle of justice, which requires practitioners to treat their patients fairly, equally, and per the law. The use of EHRs in care settings violates the stated provision because in some case, nurses that are not conversant with the named systems are retired early, violating their right to practice independent of the institutional preferential parameters. Moreover, in most cases, EHRs do not allow a practitioner to skip questions, forcing the patient to provide information that they should have a choice on whether to disclose or not (Wells, 2018). The latter may result in reduced efficiency of service delivery, causing the patient to endure more suffering than necessary.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The use of EHRs in healthcare institutions is also associated with data inaccuracies. The named systems are expected to enhance the safety of patients by reducing errors associated with practitioner service delivery, health disparities, and by improving public health. However, concerns about the reliability and accuracy of the data in electronic physician records have arisen because of the inaccurate representation of patient information, which results from using functions such as “cut and paste.” Data inaccuracy is ethically and legally unacceptable because it increases practitioner liability and the risks associated with patient health (Wilbanks & Moss, 2018). In other instances, the requirement to choose options from a drop-down menu and the disposal of relevant information in the trash can be problematic because the limited choices may cause practitioners to key in the wrong information, especially in instances that they are in a hurry. Moreover, data in EHRs can be destroyed during transfers, resulting in legal and ethical concerns that are associated with patient care decisions that may be made based on the inaccurate data (Ozair et al., 2015). Hence, the data inaccuracy issues that are associated with electronic physician records may result in errors that have legal and ethical implications.
Furthermore, when nurses use EHRs, they are likely to violate the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) provisions through the improper disposal of records, which can result in unauthorized data access. Insider snooping may also be a problem in case tracking systems and data access clearance levels are not correctly defined on the electronic physician record systems. Other HIPAA violations that may arise are associated with the release of unauthorized information or the dissemination of data to an unauthorized party, both of which result in patient privacy violations (Ron Sterling CPA, 2015). Thus, when EHRs are implemented, it is vital to ensure that the necessary measures are taken to prevent HIPAA violations and data security breaches.
The measures that nurses can use to safeguard information security when using EHRs can take technical, physical, and administrative forms. The technical security measures include data encryption, installing firewalls and antivirus software as well as using passwords to control access to patient information. The physical security measures that can be implemented include locking network server locations and installing security cameras to monitor their access. Moreover, administrative data breach preventive measures are characterized by the duplication of critical hardware, the implementation of comprehensive monitoring and testing strategies, facilitating security training and performing a regular risk assessment to initiate the implementation of control measures (Kruse et al., 2017). Thus, to promote the maximum exploitation of EHRs, nurses must implement security measures that safeguard patient information from breaches.
References
Kruse, C. S., Smith, B., Vanderlinden, H., & Nealand, A. (2017). Security techniques for the electronic health records. Journal of medical systems , 41 (8), 127.
Ozair, F. F., Jamshed, N., Sharma, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2015). Ethical issues in electronic health records: A general overview. Perspectives in clinical research , 6 (2), 73.
Ron Sterling CPA, M. B. A. (2015). Defend your practice against HIPAA violations. Contemporary Pediatrics , 32 (4), 34.
Wells, J. (2018). Are Electronic Medical Records Ethical? Retrieved 24 August 2019, from https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/04/17/are-electronic-medical-records-ethical-12848
Wilbanks, B. A., & Moss, J. (2018). Evidence-based guidelines for interface design for data entry in electronic health records. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing , 36 (1), 35-44.
