how to avoid patient confidentiality breaches
DESCRIPTION
How to avoid patient confidentiality breachesTRANSCRIPT
HOW TO AVOID PATIENT CONFIDENTIALITY BREACHES
BY SHANNON GILES
MHA 690 HEALTH CARE CAPSTONE
INSTRUCTOR: ROCKIE MCDANIEL
AUGUST 21, 2014
STAFFING
•During the interviewing phase it is important to breach the subject of privacy and confidentiality to find out how important it is to the interviewee.
TRAINING
• Before the new employee has any individual contact with patient health information (PHI) they must be trained on how the organization’s policies and procedures. The training must include examples, trial situations, and explicitly discussed consequences for both the patient and the employee.
TECHNOLOGY
• Technology must be in place including encrypted computers, firewalls, and antiviruses (Eastwood, 2012). In this case, technology has the means to be a strong force of prevention and when used properly can alleviate many privacy breach concerns.
WRITTEN POLICIES• The organization must have established their confidentiality
regulations. Those policies must be printed and placed in a clearly posted area of the building with easy access. The rules must be plainly stated and easy to understand.
REMINDERS
• Reminders should be posted throughout the office, on the computers when logging in, on telephones, and in areas where gossiping is likely to occur. These reminders should be changed often so people do not forget about their existence.
AUDITS
• Systematic audits should be completed quarterly to ensure that employees are abiding by the rules and determining if any new updates or modifications need to be made. These audits should use technology to determine patterns of mistakes as well as individuals who can assess situations.
RESPONSE TO BREACH
• It is important that if a breach does occur that there are routine steps taken in response. A team should be created as an event response group that already has measures established to properly maintain and correct the identified incident.
REFERENCES
• Eastwood, B. (2012). How to Prevent Healthcare Data Breaches (and What to Do if you’re a Victim). CIO. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/2389573/healthcare/how-to-prevent-healthcare-data-breaches--and-what-to-do-if-you-re-a-victim-.html
• Fox News. (2008). Report over 120 UCLA hospital staff saw celebrity health records. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,398784,00.html