Various forms of technology are increasingly being used to protect the patients' information and treat it confidential in the hospitals in the United States of America and beyond the country. That has significantly revolutionized the healthcare sector of the country. Besides, the hospitals have increasingly been conforming to the requirements of the medical bodies in the United States such as the Chicago-based American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) concerning the management of the health information of the patients, which is the basis of maintaining the confidentiality of their health records. AHIMA has required the health care institutions to make use of the technological approaches such as the electronic health records to preserve the information regarding their patients. That has been part of the quest to ensure that the institutions have adopted safety methods for the patients' information. The paper looks into the use of the technology to protect the patients' information from the breach of confidentiality.
How the Literature Review is Used in the Research
Simpson (2005) talks about both the patients and the nurses' safety in the medical care institutions in the United States of America. From the authors' point of view, information technology is at the cutting edge of the education and avoidance of the medical errors that may sometimes happen in the healthcare institutions. The author also illustrates that technology can buttress the weak hospital systems in an attempt to boost the patients' safety in the institutions. The nurses also gain positively from the introduction of the information systems in the medicate institutions across America. Notably, the mistakes made by the nurses may lead to the disclosure of the patients' information. Having a technological information input mechanism in the hospitals will ensure that the nurses do not make such mistakes in the future. Simpson (2005) thus elaborates on the relevance of using technology to protect the patient information by reducing the medical errors that may compromise the same.
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Goldstein (2014) agrees with Simpson (2005) that the increase in the level of technology is the first step towards reducing the medical errors in the healthcare institutions. Goldstein (2014) adds on the use of technology in the protection of the patients' confidentiality by stating that the electronic health records, such as those being advocated for by AHIMA, also advance the quality care delivery at the hospitals to the patients. The high-quality care is known to have few or no errors and is dependent on to make sure that the information regarding the patients does not leak to the other unwanted parties. According to Goldstein (2014), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 also enforce the issue of confidentiality of the patients' information using technology. The HIPAA also works together with other federal laws in the United States of America to enforce the use of technology in the healthcare institutions to reduce the medical errors and advocate for the confidentiality of their health records.
Singh and Sittig (2016) observe that the use of technology has the potential to ensure that the patients' information is safe at the healthcare institutions. Still and all, there are emergent medical; safety issues that the information of the patients may face in today's society. For instance, there is a shoot up in the cases of cybercrime in the United States of America and the other countries in the world, which poses a significant risk to the information of the patients in the healthcare institutions. Hospitals have spent vast amounts of money on the efforts to ensure that the information does not leak to the offenders but their efforts are nearing proving futile as more and more cases rise each day. Singh and Sittig (2016) therefore suggest that healthcare institutions should invest in health IT safety (HITS) programs. The programs are designed to help the hospitals ensure that the information of the patients is safe from the cybercrime issue.
Braithwaite, Marks, and Taylor (2014) look at the issue of using technology to protect the patients' information from a scientific point of view. The authors begin by observing that the implementation of evidence in the healthcare practice may prove to be a difficult task for the hospitals with low technological advancement. That undermines the effectiveness of evidence-based practice (EBP) that has come up in the medical industry to ensure that the nursing practitioners have reduced errors that may compromise the confidentiality of the patients' information. Its systematic analysis of the Medicare scenarios has made EBP popular at the hospitals. Braithwaite, Marks, and Taylor (2014) describe research performed to find out the science literature factors that were implemented in the healthcare institutions to promote patients safety. One of the factors, as described in the findings of the research, was the types of resources that a hospital has. A hospital with more technological resources has safer patients' information than the one with a shortage of resources.
Ethical Considerations for Data Collection
The first ethical consideration for data collection is the willfulness of the participants of the research to take part in data collection after deciding it on their own. The researchers are not supposed to make use of force in the coercion of the target respondents to take part in given research. The second ethical consideration is the preservation of the dignity and respect for the participants of a study. It is vital to ensure that the activities that the respondents take place in are not degrading in any way to their respect and dignity. That also increases their willingness to take part in the research.
The third ethical consideration in the process of data collection is the treatment of the participants' information with confidentiality. The researchers are expected to treat the respondents as anonymous and use pseudonyms when they would wish to describe what the participants said in the data collection procedures such as interviews. The fourth ethical consideration in the data collection part of the research is that the participants should be free of any harm during the research. Therefore, the researchers have to practice beneficence while handling the research in conjunction with the participants of the research.
What the Data Reveal Concerning the Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis is one of the analytical methods that are used in the research. Statistical analysis is applied to quantitative data collected. In the case of this research, quantitative data may have been collected to be used in the study of the use of technology to protect the patients' information in the healthcare institutions in and out of the United States of America. The data collected in the research indicates the various causes of the necessity of the research. For instance, one of the causes of the necessity to perform the research on the use of technology in protecting patient information is the rising cases of the leak of the patients' information in the healthcare institutions (Neuman, 2016).
The patterns of the occurrence of the cases of the mishandling of the patient information and its leakage from the healthcare institutions can also be established in the statistical analysis. That can be done by analyzing the cases of the information leakages in the hospitals. The relationship between the leakage of the patients' information and the lack of systems that can effectively safeguard the confidentiality of the patients' information can also be explained. The trends of the solutions can also be identified to ascertain whether the use of technology has been effective in the protection of the patients' information and confidentiality of the same (Neuman, 2016).
Evaluation of Whether there is Enough Information to Decide on the Effectiveness of the Specific Study
Both the book and the scholars have provided information regarding the research and how it can be applied to the use of technology to ensure that information of the patients in a healthcare institution is protected. The scholarly sources have been peer-reviewed to assess their sufficiency in the topic regarding the use of the latest forms of technology to come up with ways of protecting the patients' information at the healthcare institutions. Some of them are the reduction of errors by applying the evidence-based practice or the documentation of the patients' health information using the electronic health records.
The book has also talked about the revelation of data in the statistical analysis. The various methods used in the statistical analysis have been instrumental in the determination of the sufficiency of the information. That has also led to the acceptance of the information to be used as a decision-making basis on the study regarding the use of technology to protect the confidentiality of the information regarding the patients' health records. The methods used in the book have also been applied in the research efficiently and thus proving that they can be used as bases of decision-making and especially the data analysis part of the study.
Summary of Conclusions from the Literature Review
The issue of the use of technology to ensure that the information of the patient is safe in the hospitals across the United States of America and beyond the country has been expected to bear fruits as far as the target is concerned. The safeguarding of the patients' information by the healthcare institution has been expected to result from the reduction of the medical errors that may compromise the confidentiality standards. One of the ways is by the application of the evidence-based practice that has brought the nursing practitioners close to their patients concerning health records and the avoidance of mistakes. The safeguarding of the confidentiality of the information of the patients at the healthcare institutions can also be done by the integration of the health IT safety (HITS) which eliminate the risk of the cybercrime, which has been prevalent with the increase in technology in the world. That ensures that the patients are safer in healthcare.
References
Braithwaite, J., Marks, D., & Taylor, N. (2014). Harnessing implementation science to improve Care quality and patient safety: a systematic review of targeted literature. International Journal for Quality in Health Care , 26 (3), 321-329.
Goldstein, M. M. (2014). Health information privacy and health information technology in the US correctional setting. American journal of public health , 104 (5), 803-809.
Neuman, W. L. (2016). Understanding research . Pearson.
Simpson, R. L. (2005). Patient and nurse safety: how information technology makes a difference. Nursing administration quarterly , 29 (1), 97-101.
Singh, H., & Sittig, D. F. (2016). Measuring and improving patient safety through health Information technology: The Health IT Safety Framework. BMJ Qual Saf , 25 (4), 226-232.
