Hcs 335-Patient Privacy

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Patient Privacy HCS 335 February 18, 2014 Patient Privacy In today’s health care organizations, patient privacy is a major problem within the health care system. Current improvements in technology have reformed the provision of health care and the systems used to record and retrieve health information. During the course of this paper, it will discuss the affect patient privacy has on the community and legal and ethical issues associated with patient privacy. It will also discuss managerial duties as well as proposed solutions to maintain patient privacy. Health care professionals have an obligation to protect the rights to patient privacy when it concerns patient’s personal and medical information. Population Affected Patient privacy affects everyone receiving or providing medical care and it also affects those individuals seeking medical care. Patient confidentiality means a patient’s medical or personal information will not be disclosed to other individuals without the patient’s written permission. The physician of record should be the only person accessing the patient’s protected health information. The only time someone other than the physician of record should obtain the information is when the patient has given written permission. The written consent should consist of who to release the information to, what information to release, and for how long. The need for health care organizations to manage medical information systems has expanded, which in turn has increased the number of people having access to patient records. This expansion increases the chances of unsuitable use of patient records and violates state or federal privacy laws. Legal and Ethical Issues According to Pendrak and Ericson (1998), “Most states currently have laws that require healthcare organizations to maintain the confidentiality of their medical records as well as

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