1.
a.
In the healthcare system, use of smart phone and social media is inevitable in lives of people (McBride & Cohen, 2009). Such gadgets and platforms are very useful for hospital workers and patients. They play a major role in emergency notification, customer service facilities and in consumer education (McBride & Cohen, 2009). Even so, social media sites and smart phones in some cases tend to be a challenge, especially when it comes to their use. Professional boundaries and ensuring privacy can be bleached whenever proper lines are not drawn. In that sense, hospitals and need to draw policies on smart phone and social media usage (McBride & Cohen, 2009).
If I were to write hospital policy on smart phone and social media usage, I would include the following details:
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
That whenever individuals are using smart phone and social media, they should be careful not to:
Cheat the healthcare facility (McBride & Cohen, 2009)
Not to abuse their client’s trust (McBride & Cohen, 2009)
Not to get suspension from their experience (McBride & Cohen, 2009)
To treat their social media posts as public assets (McBride & Cohen, 2009)
To avoid posting their clinical experiences on social media (McBride & Cohen, 2009)
To remember posts on social media are there to stay (McBride & Cohen, 2009)
To avoid discussing their supervisors and patients with colleagues (McBride & Cohen, 2009)
Make sure they post something their supervisors, family members and employers would find comfortable reading (McBride & Cohen, 2009)
Decline whenever clients request to take photos with them (McBride & Cohen, 2009)
Seek support from supervisor regarding any disturbing online content (McBride & Cohen, 2009)
ii.
According to Cross (2013), there exists potential ethical and legal liabilities for the hospital and employees in use of smartphone and social media. The author posits that, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) prohibits posting or discussing any pictures of a patient (Beltran-Aroca et al. 2016). Even when the perpetrators fail to mention the patient’s name, they have already committed a violation. Some of the laws governing the privacy of the patients include Violations of Privacy” (MC HR Policy 707), and Confidentiality of Patient Information (MCP 0021) (Beltran-Aroca et al. 2016). In that sense, the above scenario is a violation of these acts and law and as such, ethical and legal liabilities for both the employees and the facility are without a doubt. On the part of the employees, by sharing patient information on social media, they risk losing job, jail sentences, financial fines, and they risk losing their nursing license. In the event the incidence that took place also implicated the health facility, it could be held liable for negligence of hiring or offering proper supervision on the employees (Beltran-Aroca et al. 2016). In the same vein, the hospital can be accused of failing to put up adequate procedures and policies safeguarding patient confidential information. Safeguarding patient information is the duty of both the hospital and the employees. However, in some cases, the failure by the employees who fail to protect client information means the worker will be held liable (Beltran-Aroca et al. 2016).
2.
a.
Although the right to free speech is guaranteed by the constitution, the protection of the same has become increasingly difficult since the introduction of social media platforms. Notably, exchange of racially abusive memes and images on Facebook has seen Harvard University rescind admission of students. Harvard has been struggling for a long time, to establish classes that reflect the diverse population. The university has issued warnings to students to avoid engaging in activities that promote racism and culture of hatred. Just like other universities, the institution has the power of revoking admissions, especially in situations where the students engage in morally questionable activities. Following the revocation of ten students in 2007 by Harvard, this discussion seeks to determine whether potential employers, current employers, and colleges have the right to access one’s social media post. Further, it explores whether employers and universities should make decisions based on posts that one has made.
Potential employers, current employers, and colleges have the right to access one’s social media posts. They can utilize it to get the first impression needed, to tell whether the candidate is the right. In addition, the overall look at the posts one has made, and the content the person is interacting with will give some clue on whether the candidate has the right personality and skills (Boyd, 2015). Individuals posts are significant in telling on the behaviors, which the employer might feel will be stigmatizing other employees. The recruiters are mostly interested in seeing the way the candidates interact with other individuals online. Sections of individuals feel that, by accessing one’s social media posts, the employers are intruding into one’s social and private space. However, they need to understand that, the employers are only interested into looking whether the job resume coincides with the content the candidate has posted on the social platform. For instance, on the personal profile, Facebook users tend to include their work place, and schools they have attended. The employers might be interested to check on whether the information captured on the Facebook profile is the same in the resume.
I think employers and universities have the right to make decisions based on what candidates have posted. A 2018 study by CareerBuilder survey revealed that, 70% of potential employers rely on social media to vet appropriate candidates to take up vacant positions. Further, the survey revealed that, 43% check current employees using the social media. Considering the foregoing statistics, it becomes clear that, social media can determine whether one is fit in a certain organization (Boyd, 2015). Social media account such as Twitter and Fcaebook is personal, and it presents a good chance to know the personality of the candidate beyond their resume, and performances in previous institutions. Whenever a candidate does not have an online presence, it simply shows that they have something they want to hide. Still in some cases, others avoid using their real names, and such a tendency even raises more questions and shows one is nonprofessional. People should not fear, as in most cases, the universities and employers are simply looking for reasons to hire or admit them. They are interested in information that will support one’s qualification.
3.
Provision of quality care, reimbursement, accreditation decisions, and informatics are closely associated. Health informatics, and especially in the wake of new technology, has helped in ensuring quality care is guaranteed. Informatics provides patients with a platform to provide healthcare professionals with critical information, besides sharing the same with fellow patients, friends, and family (Hebda, Hunter & Czar, 2018). In addition, it enables patients to have control over their personal care. On the part of clinicians, informatics enables them to manage care and share the same with their colleagues. In fact, clinicians and patients make use of it for interaction purposes.
On the other hand, accreditation decisions play a huge role in determining whether healthcare organizations are performing as expected. Notably, accreditation decisions rely on informatics on healthcare to determine whether the quality of services offered has improved or not. Without accreditation decisions, it would be difficult and impossible to achieve quality care. The process enables thorough evaluation on the performance of health care organizations by investigating whether they are complying with the set standards. The decisions aim at encouraging continuous quality care improvement, as opposed to maintaining low performance levels.
In its context, reimbursement is related to quality of care. Notably, value based care refers to a type of reimbursement that associated delivery of quality care to the payments of the services given. This method of payment aims at rewarding providers of care for offering effective and efficient healthcare. The value-based method was introduced to replace the fee-for-service reimbursement strategy, which compensated providers for their services based on annual fees or bill charges. Actually, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was determined in changing the way providers of healthcare are reimbursed for their services. In that sense, it introduced numerous models of value-based care, among them Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO), and Medicare Shared Savings Program models (Hebda, Hunter & Czar, 2018). This approach of payment was even adopted by private payers, upon the realization that it promoted the quality of care accessed by patients. The traditional method of reimbursement aimed at offering quantity services, but federal officials recommended numerous reimbursement methods that reward providers based on quality of care patients get. The most appropriate method embraced by many was value-based care, which aims at minimizing costs of healthcare, improving strategies of population health management and offering improved care to patients.
In overall, it is evident that accreditation decisions, reimbursement, quality of care, informatics are all related. In fact, for accreditation to take place, experts have to rely on informatics to access healthcare reports and make appropriate decisions of improving patient safety and quality care. Through accreditation decisions, quality care is realized, and it helps in offering leadership of quality improvement within nursing and medical profession. In addition, it helps to increase employee satisfaction in terms of working conditions, and whenever they feel secure and safe, the impact is equally implicated on patients, who enjoy improved quality services. Consequently, reimbursement comes in handy, by ensuring that; providers are compensated based on the quality of services, and not the quantity of services.
References
Beltran-Aroca, C. M., Girela-Lopez, E., Collazo-Chao, E., Montero-Pérez-Barquero, M., & Muñoz-Villanueva, M. C. (2016). Confidentiality breaches in clinical practice: what happens in hospitals? BMC medical ethics , 17(1), 52.
Boyd, D. (2015). It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press
Cross, M. (2013). Social Media Security: Leveraging Social Networking While Mitigating Risk. New York, NY: Newnes
Hebda, T., Hunter, K., & Czar, P. (2018). Handbook of informatics for nurses and healthcare professionals. (6 th Ed). New York, NY: Pearson
McBride, D. & Cohen, E. (2009). Misuse of social networking may have ethical implications for nurses. ONS Connect , 17.
