Executive summary
Good patient care refers to safe record keeping practices. In medical practices, it is unlikely for patients to share sensitive information unless they do trust that you are going to honor their confidentiality. Sharing the information of the patient by any means does need some system of protection to be in place so that to make sure that the system can effectively share the necessary data while it ensures the protection of the personal information of a patient. The system needs to ensure that information cannot be accessed by unauthorized people (Bond et al. 2012). With the advancement in health information technology, it is now possible for health providers to share information about the patient electronically. A challenge with sharing of patient information electronically with other providers when the other health organization uses different electronic systems or when the systems are not accurate or up to date. It is essential that the health organization should adhere to the local, state, and federal regulations like ACA and HIPAA with regards to patient information security and the retention of records.
The ACA and HIPAA regulations are a key concern for those organizations that are operating in the healthcare industry (Nelson & Staggers 2014). It is essential that organizations must ensure the compliance with the industry regulations because the failure of doing this can result in negative publicity and substantial fines that will greatly hurt the reputation of the brand and negatively impact the bottom line. HIPAA is legislation that indicates the provisions for safeguarding the medical information and privacy of data. HIPAA establish the standards for electronic health care transaction and the national identifiers for employers, heath plans, and providers (Nelson & Staggers 2014). It tends to define the requirements for security and privacy for protecting health information.
Trends in patient data capture and information sharing
The individual’s ability of easily and securely accessing and using their health information electronically does serve as a major cornerstone of the efforts to increase the family and patient engagement. With the access to information, it is possible for individuals to act as the intermediaries of the information exchange among the providers and also use the innovative applications so as to properly manage health. The organizations, which are investing in the electronic systems so as to speed the flow of information in and outside the organization, should be aware of implications of the regulatory guidelines on their use. The new trend of electronic use tends to add infrastructure complexity that may make it very difficult for the organizations to comply with these requirements (Bond et al. 2012). The HIPAA guidelines do require that the electronic records systems must be secure through the use of encryption, individual passwords, and the audit trail. The guidelines also require strict technical and physical security measures so as to limit the access to the regulated systems.
While observing the regulations, the health care firms should develop security measures that will help to limit the access to patient information by unauthorized individuals. Ensuring the security and privacy of health information is a major component in building the trust needed to realize the potential benefit of the exchange of health information electronically. When individuals in a network lack trust in the electronic exchange of information because of the perceived risks to the health information, it can affect the people’s willingness of disclosing health information.
When ensuring patient information security, backing up of the electronic health system is essential so as to prevent the loss of care continuity in an incident of a disaster that might destroy the main electronic system or the database. In today’s health environment, all the stakeholders are supposed to be true stewards of the patient data and also act in the best interest of offering the highest quality of patient care (Petterson & Maki 2013). As the stewards of the data, it is the responsibility to share the data appropriately to improve the cost and quality of care. Treating the patient data as being an asset that delivers a competitive advantage to the provider is not an option. The patient data should be used properly and ensure sufficient security when sharing that data with other health providers.
The electronic health information systems tend to make it easy to make the health care decisions. With the systems, it is possible for the health providers to evaluate the medical history, health conditions, and then test the results in a just location without even having access to the paper records in the different location (Bond et al. 2012). The systems also allow other health providers to enter and store the history of the patient and any vital signs that they may indicate.
With the current trend of electronic sharing of health information, there are certain challenges that the healthcare organizations are facing. As data is being stored, shared, and made available to individual electrically, the complexity of the regulatory compliance on the health organizations increases (Petterson & Maki 2013). The increasing use of personal computers, networking medical devices, and the mobile devices are making it hard to exactly know where the personally identifiable information may be located and this makes it difficult to ensure the adequate protection. While trying to maintain compliance in ensuring data security, the health organization encounters the challenge of the medical processes being in constant flux, the ever-changing technology, and also the companies lacking the sophisticated technology infrastructure. The health care providers also face the challenges of unauthorized access to the patient record, hacking into the information systems, and the unofficial altering of the health data of the patient (Aggarwal et al. 2015). The unauthorized access to these data can result in public sharing of the patient information that may negatively impact the reputation of the patient and also jeopardize the employment of an individual.
Impact of the trends on organization’s operations
A major impact related to the trends in patient information sharing and data capture is that of saving time. When using the electronic health information systems, it is possible for the healthcare organization to acquire information of the patient without having to go through the paper records. The easy access to the patient information electronically does help the organization to save time (Zeng et al. 2015). The fact that the electronic system has all the data regarding the patient including the medical history does help the health provider to attend to the patient quickly and in this case improved the patient’s experience in the facility.
As the healthcare organizations are shifting to the electronic health information systems, they are bound to experience significant changes in how they conduct operations. The systems help the organization to make better decisions and also offer more coordinated care. With the complete access to patient information, healthcare providers tend to improve their ability to make well-informed decisions safely and quickly (Zeng et al. 2015).
Sharing the patient information electronically has significant towards the patient as it helps to eliminate errors and also saves sufficient time for the organization. The current trend of data capturing and information sharing electronically is on the rise because of the benefits it presents to the patient and the healthcare organizations (Bond et al. 2012). When using the systems, it is very important to observe the rules and guidelines put in place to ensure the information safety and privacy of the patient. While there are some challenges encountered when observing the regulations, the healthcare organizations seem to be determined to make sure that they do not breach the rules (Aggarwal et al. 2015). The benefit to the organization regarding the electronic sharing of information is that it ensures the health providers have access and they securely share the vital medical information of the patient electronically; hence, improving the quality, safety, speed, and the cost of the patient care. The fact that it ensures the timely sharing of the vital information about the patient tends to help make better and informed decisions at the point of care. The organization gets to benefit from this health information technology regarding cost saving by avoiding medication errors, decreasing the duplicate testing, avoidance of readmissions and also improved diagnosis.
In conclusion, communication is also enhanced between the health provider and the patient because the patient gets to see their health conditions in the systems and they may interact with their doctor at any time regarding their health.
Reference
Harman, L Flite, C & Bond, K (2012). Electronic Health Records: Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security. AMA Journal of Ethics 14(9)
Nelson, R & Staggers, N (2014).Health informatics. Elsevier Health Sciences
Ozair F, Sharma A, Jamshed N, & Aggarwal P. (2015). Ethical issues in electronic health records. Perspectives in Clinical Research. 6(2) doi:10.4103/2229-3485.153997
Petterson, B & Maki, S (2013) Using electronic health record in the health care provider practice. New Jersey, Cengage Learning
Zeng, D Ho, K & Yin, X (2015). Health information science. New York, Springer International Publishing
Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in research paper writing services if you need a similar paper you can place your order from Top American Writing Services.
