Safety, Quality, and Informatics

This paper seeks to exemplify the need for secure information in a healthcare organization. The best practice overall is to secure the healthcare data and confidentiality of patients that is stored within the electronic medical record (EMR). This security is pertinent, not only for it being a legal obligation, but also as an ethical core value for healthcare practitioners. This paper also gives a closer look at the role of the government, non-governmental organizations and other regulatory agencies in ensuring quality and effective health services. It is beyond reasonable doubt that technological advancements have greatly revolutionized the healthcare sector, particularly in the manner of how information is handled. The knowledge of design, development, adoption, application and security of IT-based innovations in healthcare services delivery, management, and planning is of great importance not only to the healthcare practitioners but to the healthcare organization at large (U.S. National Library of Medicine).

Healthcare organizations have undergone changes in the manner of collection and analysis of data, and this has influenced the daily operations of hospitals and healthcare personnel by increasing the quality delivery of services. However, there have been instances where criminals have breached into health information and committed medical identity theft or in some rare cases, healthcare employees have also intruded into patient’s records without consent. Such unauthorized access to patient’s information has the potential of ruining organizations reputations, which can lead to the loss of patients trust. With the ever-rising cyber attacks on healthcare organizations, cybercriminals develop more sophisticated tools each day with different methods to attack healthcare organizations. Healthcare data security has never been more important as it is in this era. Healthcare organizations are left with the duty of securing sensitive patients information as well as other data. As part of informatics best practices, medical practitioners have the ethical responsibility, as well as legal duty to honor and protect patient’s confidentiality. The Amsterdam Declaration recognized dignity as a main right for patients (World Health Organization [WHO], 1994).

Education of staff members is the number one thing that healthcare organizations can do to ensure that EMR’s are protected within the four walls of the hospital. A good number of healthcare breaches reported involved employees, therefore, the first step to securing healthcare information is through training of employees on how to choose passwords, the consequences of intentional breach into patient’s data, as well as knowledge on how to avoid attacks that target employees. Protection of network is a good idea when it comes to securing information; this might include partitioning of network systems, such that attempted intrusion into one area does not necessarily affect the other area. Security tools such as anti-viruses and firewalls should be deployed. Physical security controls still hold true when it comes to data protection, CCTV cameras should be positioned where important information is held, and doors and file cabinets must be locked to enhance security within the healthcare organization.

Encryption of mobile storage devices, computers and servers is also a great step to ensuring security of data within the healthcare organization. In addition to provision of encrypted devices to employees, it is a good idea to formulate strict policies against storing information pertaining to patients on unencrypted personal devices. Reduced physical movements in organizations means that organizations are shifting to wireless networks due to its advantages. However, wireless networks are vulnerable to hacking. It is therefore important for the organization to use secure wireless networks with secure password networks while at the same time blocking unauthorized devices from accessing the network.

Some of the ethical standards needed to protect the patients information is non-maleficence first and foremost, but autonomy also needs to come into play as well. In educating the staff efficiently and continuously checking their competency, the organization can allow them to work autonomously. In doing so, the staff can be more productive and focus on practicing non-maleficence both physically and with their electronic health records. Patients and their families will feel more at ease knowing that their information is secure, which gives them one less thing to worry about. Healthcare workers can aid in this ease by ensuring that the patient and their families feel comfortable with the information that is being shared and with who, and by always following all the rules of confidentiality when dealing with them. All of these practices can also help to gain trust between interdisciplinary team members knowing that everyone is being trained properly and following the correct protocols.

The Joint Commission [formerly known as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)] is the regulating body within healthcare organizations in the United States. Healthcare organizations are accredited by JCAHO on a 3-year accreditation cycle. If a healthcare organization is deemed fit, they will become accredited and monitored by JCAHO, and this ensures that the hospital has a positive reputation. According to their website, JCAHO has the following stance on EMR protection, “The Joint Commission standards require organizations to comply with applicable law and regulation to ensure the privacy and integrity of protected health information (PHI) are maintained. When an organization's staff is not present to monitor medical records storage areas, alternative approaches must be employed to protect privacy and confidentiality of this information. Keeping such information secure when staff is not present generally requires a process that includes a locking mechanism” (TJC, 2018). That being said, they are consistently monitoring their healthcare organizations and ensuring that they are up to date with their security protocols, and that they are protecting their patients both physically, and electronically.

With the rising implementation of health information technology in healthcare settings, the nursing staff represents the first group of healthcare professionals to use these technologies. This means nurse leader competencies are of importance when it comes to healthcare information technology. Nurse managers and leaders should be the champions of better information usage in the healthcare centers, and each unit can have an informatics representative. This will ensure that between nursing upper management and staff nurses, that people are being educated on a rolling basis. Nurse leaders should have basic computer competencies, the concept of computer technology and how to incorporate these systems into the organization. Nurse leaders must be information literate, having understanding of the nature of information as well as the ability to evaluate information sources.

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