Interprofessional Staff Update: Social media Risks to Patient Information
Introduction
Technology has taken over all operations in almost all professional sectors. The medical field is no exception. However, a significant amount of caution must be observed when using technology in this sector since it comes with many risks. Patient privacy and confidentiality are particularly endangered since technology has made sharing patients’ private information very easy. Through this interprofessional staff update, healthcare providers understand HIPAA requirements and how to handle their patient’s private information in their use of social media.
HIPAA and Protected Health Information
HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act passed by the government of the United States of America to safeguard the sensitive and private of certain patients against any possibility of leaking or reaching third parties with those patients’ consent (Murdoch, 2021). According to Murdoch (2021), the name Protected Health Information (PHI) highlights the need to protect this information. Many medical practitioners breach HIPPA laws out of ignorance, while others do so for reasons known only to them. Therefore, there is a need to educate them on these laws. Otherwise, they would be penalized by the federal government for these breaches.
Privacy entails enlightening patients about their power to determine when to reveal certain private information and when not to (Moore & Frye, 2019). Therefore, they are the ones who determine who can see their Protected Health Information and who does not.
Security refers to protecting Protected Health Information with the help of technological, administrative and physical means to foster privacy and confidentiality for patients’ private and sensitive data (Moore & Frye, 2019). If healthcare officers do not take appropriate measures to secure their patients’ Protected Health Information, there will be a high likelihood of breaching this crucial data.
Confidentiality is when patients’ sensitive information remains in the hands of only those who can access it (Moore & Frye, 2019). It is not revealed to anyone unless patients consent to the revelation.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Interdisciplinary collaboration entails working closely with staff from different parts of the health institution to ensure that patients’ sensitive information is protected from leaking or being accessed by third unpermitted parties. Teaming up with people from all relevant departments helps seal all possible loopholes. When this happens, the likelihood of sensitive information leaking diminishes significantly. In organizations where collaboration is emphasized, HIPAA compliance is enhanced since all the programs developed are comprehensive.
Penalties for Breaches of Privacy
Termination: Many nurses have lost their jobs due to breaching HIPAA. Termination as a penalty is administered depending on the severity of the breach, the institutions’ policies, and whether nurse did it intentionally or has done the same thing before (Hoffman, 2022). According to Hoffman (2022), many healthcare givers who breach privacy rules are terminated by medical institutions all over the country each day.
Hoffman (2022) describes how a medical officer revealed his patient’s HIV status and another one who revealed Britney Spears’s mental status to third parties using social media. These serious privacy breaches demonstrate how social media has severely threatened patients’ privacy. Moore & Frye (2019) also reiterate the danger posed by electronic media and social media to secure personal and sensitive data. It has become easy for nurses to share confidential information with third parties using social media platforms that use electronic media.
Sanctions: Healthcare institutions employ a variety of penalties based on the type of breach. These sanctions range from termination, monetary fines and temporal suspension from duty.
Monetary penalties: This type of sanction has also been extensively used by health institutions to diminish the breach of patients’ privacy and confidentiality. Protected Health Information has led to huge losses for nurses due to the hefty penalties they have had to pay (Hoffman, 2022). The amount payable is dependent on the severity of their violations.
Preventive measures: Most organizations prefer adopting preventive measures as opposed to penalizing their employees once breaches have occurred. Most of the time, institutions choose to educate their staff on the importance of HIPAA and PHI (Moore & Frye, 2019). Some healthcare organizations have created social solid media policies to instill fear among their staff and prevent them from violating their patients’ privacy under whatever circumstances.
Conclusion
Nurses and other healthcare providers are responsible for ensuring that their patient’s privacy and confidentiality are protected. They are required to ensure that all their dealings are in line with the requirements of HIPAA. Therefore, they are obliged to keep their patients’ Protected Health information away from social media, unless they have the patients’ consent.
References
Hoffman, S. (2022). Privacy and security — protecting patients’ health information. New England Journal of Medicine, 387(21), 1913–1916. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp2201676
Moore, W., & Frye, S. (2019). Review of HIPAA, part 1: History, protected health information, and privacy and security rules. Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology, 47(4), 269–272. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnmt.119.227819
Murdoch, B. (2021). Privacy and artificial intelligence: Challenges for protecting health information in a new era. BMC Medical Ethics, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00687-3
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