Reflection on learning

3

Week 6: Health Privacy Breach

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Week 6: Health Privacy Breach

Scenario 1

The social media posting presents both privacy and security issues. Regarding privacy issues, the posting contains information that is sufficient to identify a patient in the hospital. Although the posting does not contain direct identifiers such as names or addresses, it contains a specific description of a patient. According to Arrigoni et al. (2016) “nurses may breach confidentiality or privacy with information they post via social media sites…examples may include comments in which patients are described with enough sufficient detail to be identified, referring to patients in a degrading or demeaning manner, or posting videos or photos of patients” (p. 187). The post by the nurse in the scenario meets these criteria. The patient is described as a 400 lbs. intubated COPD patient who was being taken to the ICU. Such information is sufficient enough to pinpoint the specific patient being addressed. Regarding security issues, the post implies that the ICU nurses were being 'divas' and were whining a lot. The post then goes on to say 'someone help.' if one or some of the nurse's followers on the social media platform are deranged or mentally unstable, they may translate the post seriously and go to 'help' the nurse in the hospital where she works. The deranged individuals will simply target the ICU nurses as the people who are 'harming’ the nurse in the social media platform. If the deranged individuals are armed, the situation can be fatal.

Scenario 2

In the scenario, the nurse uses the pictures of her client’s lesions in a presentation poster for a conference. Lefebvre (2020) notes that when a healthcare practitioner wishes to post content about a patient’s identifiable information on public platforms, he/she must ensure that he/she obtains the consent of the patient. In this case, the nurse must contact the patient and explain her wish to use the pictures on the poster, which will be seen publicly. The nurse must ensure that she explicitly and concisely states how the photos will be used and show the photos chosen to the patient. If the patient agrees to have the photos used in the poster, the nurse must ensure that she gets a second opinion from someone who is an expert on HIPAA laws and other relevant privacy regulations to ensure that this exercise does not violate the privacy or confidentiality of the patient and cause any security risk issues.

Scenario 3

Under HIPAA regulations, the hospital is permitted to share information about Marcus's health status with the long-term care facility without the authorization of the patient (Cohen & Mello, 2018). In this context, the long-term care facility is responsible for the long-term wellbeing of the patient, therefore, this facility must be appraised of any new developments regarding the client’s health status. If the hospital denies giving the long-term care facility the relevant information regarding Marcus, it will not only put the patient’s life at risk but also impact the rest of the individuals staying at the facility. This is because there is a likelihood that the issue affecting Marcus also affects other clients at the facility. The issue may be something that is being overlooked. Therefore sharing this information can help the facility rectify its mistakes and ensure Marcus and the rest of the patients receive the proper care they deserve. Additionally, when the long-term care facility is appraised of the status of Marcus, it will be better placed to make arrangements to facilitate the purchase of any medication or equipment that will be necessary to deal with the patient’s ailment. Overall, since both the hospital and the long-term care facility are working to care for the same patient, they should share information so long as their communication channels are not accessible by unauthorized third parties.

References

Arrigoni, C., Alvaro, R., Vellone, E., & Vanzetta, M. (2016). Social media and nurse education: An integrative review of the literature. J Mass Communicat Journalism, 6(1), 187-201.

Cohen, I. G., & Mello, M. M. (2018). HIPAA and protecting health information in the 21st century. Jama, 320(3), 231-232.

Lefebvre, C., McKinney, K., Glass, C., Cline, D., Franasiak, R., Husain, I., ... & Stopyra, J. (2020). Social media usage among nurses: Perceptions and practices. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 50(3), 135-141.