Benefits and Drawbacks of Electronic Health Record Systems, Research Paper Example

Introduction

As technology use becomes more and more common, its potential applications to the healthcare field become questionable. One the one hand, using technology would improve the ability of healthcare professionals to track essential patient data and to make more reasonable predictions concerning their health status. On the other hand, the storage of this data in an unsafe manner can mean a breach of patient safety, which is detrimental to not only the patient, but to those involved. Overall, the use of technology is beneficial to the field if its use remains protected. To ensure that this will be the case, it is necessary to implement training programs and a series of restrictions in order to ensure that it is used properly.

A primary example of a situation in which it would not be appropriate to use technology is to violate the privacy rights of patients. It is the responsibility of the entire healthcare team to ensure patient data remains private and that only parties that have rights to this data have the ability to access it. In the case study provided, it is evident that the emergency room nurse was violating HIPAA regulations when she took the picture of the celebrity. All nurses are required to keep the status of their patients confidential. Therefore, even when a celebrity enters the emergency room, they are prohibited from discussing his status in the hospital in addition to his condition with others. Only those that are present in the room at the time of the incident and are already aware of the celebrity’s health status may engage in this conversation, and this should only take place for purposes of diagnosis.

The conclusion that is being selected for analysis is the one in which there is a HIPAA violation involving release of the celebrity photo that was taken by the nurse. Since the photos were sold to the Gossip Gazette, it is clear that the nurse did not properly track her cellular device, containing information that she did not have legal rights to. Therefore, the release of the photo can be considered her responsibility, and any legal action that is being taken against the hospital was a consequence of her actions.

Body

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) provides for the security of electronic protected health information. This policy is breached if the information is released from a healthcare institution or agency due to negligence. Therefore, when using technology in a hospital, private practice, or insurance company, there is a certain degree of risk involved. While using technology makes it easier to track patient information, individuals that store data electronically are responsible for ensuring that it is used correctly. Therefore, a major disadvantage of using technology in the healthcare field is the risk that it may be breached.

It is very expensive to ensure that patient information remains protected (Shekelle et al., 2006). To do so, all employees must undergo institutional training programs to ensure that they are aware of their legal requirements. In addition, the software must be utilized in a manner that each employee has individual access to the system so that use could be tracked. Lastly, failure to comply, whether it be the fault of the hospital or an individual employee, can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines. Therefore, there is major incentive for those using electronic health record systems to invest money to ensure that the security breaches do not occur in the first place. It is likely that the hospital in the given scenario will be subject to expensive fees in order to defend itself in the lawsuit issued by the celebrity. If they are found guilty, this will result in even more fees in fines.

An additional reason that technology use should be avoided in the healthcare field is that training programs are often intricate and must be issued on a regular basis. HIPAA compliance becomes more difficult to maintain when there are more rules that become applicable. Therefore, these plans need to be thorough and will take up a lot of time from the human resources team, who have many other responsibilities. This scenario will have a negative impact on the human resources team, who will have to expend valuable time to ensure that this type of breach does not occur again. Furthermore, they will have to conduct a thorough investigation to determine where the breach occurred. Since a limited number of individuals interacted with the celebrity in the emergency room, the nurse in question could likely get caught and lose her job.

Another disadvantage of technology use in healthcare is that the electronic health record design is intricate. Therefore, each employee needs to be thoroughly trained on the system to ensure that they will not allow unauthorized individuals to access the information. Furthermore, it is essential to ensure that information is being entered into the system and retrieved properly, so that large scale mistakes concerning the treatment of patients are not made. While this disadvantage is not directly related to the scenario, the nurse would have also been responsible for the breach if she had left the electronic health record system logged in, allowing an unauthorized individual to access patient data.

An advantage of using technology in the healthcare setting is that it becomes easier for healthcare professionals to communicate with one another (Tang et al., 2006). For example, rather than just paging a physician or nurse, using cell phones allows conversations to occur concerning the patient’s situation while the healthcare professional travels to the correct location. The nurse in this scenario may have been using her cellphone for this purpose, but she inappropriately used it to take the photo of the celebrity, which caused this situation to backfire on her.

An additional advantage of using technology in the healthcare setting is that it allows the healthcare team to gain a more accurate understanding of the conditions of each patient. All past medication uses and diagnoses should be listed on the application, which helps the healthcare team understand the patient’s most recent condition. The nurse may have been using her cellphone for this purpose, but she deviated from its approved use. She could have also released private information for the celebrity mistakenly by leaving this application open.

A final advantage of using technology in the healthcare setting is that it allows physicians to keep track of the pharmaceuticals that are prescribed (Menachemi et al., 2011). This allows them to understand how to properly prevent giving a patient a drug that will cause a detrimental interaction. Again, the nurse in question could have been potentially using her mobile device for this purposes, but she undermines the usefulness of this tool by violating HIPAA.

Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, the nurse could have avoided this trouble if she had understood and complied with HIPAA. According to the law, it was her responsibility to ensure that the privacy rights of her patient was protected. Since the hospital is being sued for the violation, it is likely that the nurse will be held responsible and lose her job. Ultimately, technology use is necessary in the healthcare setting in the modern era because of the many benefits it has to patient care. However, it is essential for healthcare facilities to provide the proper training to their employees to ensure compliance. If compliance could be met, technology use would be completely beneficial and there would not be a question as to whether it is an advantage or disadvantage.

References

HHS. (n.d.). Health Information Privacy. Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/

Menachemi M, Collum TH. (2011). Benefits and drawbacks of electronic health record systems. Risk ManagHealthc Policy, 4: 47–55.

Shekelle P, Morton SC, Keeler EB. (2006). Costs and Benefits of Health Information Technology. Evidence Reports/Technology Assessments, 132.

Tang PC, Ash JS, Bates DW, Overhage JM, Sands DZ. (2006). Personal Health Records: Definitions, Benefits, and Strategies for Overcoming Barriers to Adoption. J Am Med Inform Assoc, 13:121-126