Health information technology is the area of IT that deals with the design, maintenance, and creation of information systems in the health care industry. The use of information system in the health care industry was introduced because of the need to service quality and efficiency, reduce cost, boost the accessibility of healthcare services and last but not least improve the satisfaction of patients. The ever-changing technology and the government policies tend to have an influence on the quality of healthcare services the patients receive. The health information system is now growing because of the support it receives from the government. This paper will focus on the legal, federal and accreditation that surround the health information systems.
The central component of the health information system is an electronic health record. An electronic health record also known as EMR is a record that captures an individual's health record and this record is shared amongst multiple health care providers. The key trait that is observed in health information systems is the maintenance of an individual's data and the sharing of this data with different health care providers (Blumenthal, 2009). In the case where health care providers have to share an individual's information, the health care providers have to get into an interoperability pact that allows these organizations to share a patient's data. Other health information systems besides EMR include picture archiving and, communication systems and vendor neutral archives. These systems have been employed mostly in the radiology department.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
A number of ethical and legal issues have emerged due to the use of information systems in a clinical setting. The use of HIT has its advantages especially in improving the care that patients receive. However, the implementation of this system comes with some legal implications. The use of EMR poses some legal risks to the physicians that should be taken into consideration. One of the legal issues that the issue that the use of EMR is likely to bring is vulnerability to fraud claims. Hospitals and physicians are bound to face legal repercussions if their agreements are not crafted well. Frameworks and plans have been established to prevent cases of fraud in the use of health care information system. One of the laws that have been established to ensure that fraud cases are handled well is the Stark law and Anti-kickback statute. Stark law is liability based while Anti-kickback, on the other hand, is intent based.
The other legal issue bound to face health care information system is breaches, theft and unauthorized access to personal patient’s information. The number of patients who have been affected by breaches in data has risen over the years reaching to about 5.4 million. The other factors that lead to a breach in patients data are theft, human error, and unauthorized access. One health center in Calif faced a breach when one of the personal computers belonging to one of the administrative officers was stolen. This thus exposed the personal information of millions of patients in that particular center. The only way hospitals and clinics can shield themselves from being victims of a data breach are through the establishment of HIPPA policies. The hospitals should ensure that all the employees are aware of the HIPPA policies and that they strive to implement the policies into their information system.
Medical errors are also one of the legal issues that physicians and hospitals are bound to face. Too much on the tools that EMR offers such as the copy and paste tool ends up leaving a trail of errors that end up posing a medical risk (Goldzweig, Towfigh, Maglione & Shekelle, 2009). One physician explains just how by the click of a mouse one is bound to make a massive error that will make the physician lose his or her practicing license. He explains how he almost prescribed the wrong medication to a patient that was having an ear infection. Luckily, the doctor managed to effectively track the mistake and the patient was given the correct medications. This is just one of the cases among many others that have led to individuals ending up jailed just because of depending too much on the EMR system currently in use in hospitals. The other errors bound to be encountered in the EMR system could result from bugs, viruses and other technological inefficiencies.
Federal Regulations
There exist a number of state and federal laws that govern the use of the health information system in a clinical setup. These laws have been set up to protect the privacy of the Americans. Patients have the right to privacy, especially when sharing their information with other health care providers. Therefore hospitals need to be aware of the federal and state laws that govern the use of the information system in a clinical setup. Some of the federal laws governing the use of HIT is that privacy act of 1974, the alcohol and drug abuse patient confidentiality and The food and drug administration safety and innovation act of 2012 among many others. The federal laws that have been enacted to monitor the use of HIT are different as you move from one state to the other. It is paramount for hospitals to be familiar and aware of these regulations so that they can improve the function of the computer bases care systems. (Ash, Berg & Coiera, 2004).
Accreditations
For a clinic or hospital institution to be allowed to make use of the EMR system and any other type of health information system, the institution must receive accreditation. One of the accreditations that such institutions are supposed to have is HIPPA and HITECH accreditations. These are some of the bodies that govern the safety and privacy of a patient's information.
Future research in health informatics
A strategic plan for the future needs to be developed in order to successfully implement an information system in the health care sector. Technology is constantly changing as time passes by, therefore it is paramount for researchers to see how they can implement this change in the health information system. Research through the forecasting method is being done on EMR's so as to come up with a foresight approach that will aid us in creating long term expectations for the future of HIT (Hersh, 2004). Several studies and research have been done on health informatics in order to come up with a system that will minimize errors and ensure that operations are flowing without any difficulties. Most researchers have proposed the use of foresight in order to come up with a well-structured framework that will aid in designing and constructing effective health information systems.
To sum it up the use of information system in the health care sector have come in handy in improving the services offered to patients, improving efficiency as well as boosting patients satisfaction. There are certain legal issues that are bound to arise with the use an implementation of health care systems and it is thus paramount for hospitals to ensure that they are well informed about these issues. Intensive research in the use of health care information system should be carried out to ensure that the problems facing the current HIT system are eradicated. This can only be done by employing a foresight approach as it will help us construct effective health information systems.
References
Ash, J. S., Berg, M., & Coiera, E. (2004). Some unintended consequences of information technology in health care: the nature of patient care information system-related errors. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , 11 (2), 104-112.
Blumenthal, D. (2009). Stimulating the adoption of health information technology. New England journal of medicine , 360 (15), 1477-1479.
Goldzweig, C. L., Towfigh, A., Maglione, M., & Shekelle, P. G. (2009). Costs and benefits of health information technology: new trends from the literature. Health Affairs , 28 (2), w282-w293.
Hersh, W. (2004). Health care information technology: progress and barriers. Jama , 292 (18), 2273-2274.
