The recommended steps to prevent this breach in the future are:
Identify vulnerabilities i.e., Perform a Security Risk Analysis (SRA);
review safeguards (Technical, Administrative, and Security
Safeguards); Create a response plan for any possible future
incidence. Ultimately, the SRA will enable the organization to review
and define any risks of data security, whether low or high risk, as well
as preparing an action plan to avoid this from happening. The
safeguards could easily be staff training. The issue might have been
from a phishing email, and employees will need more training than
just annually to prevent this from happening again.
Effective privacy and security strategies can lead to organizational
success by enabling patient trust that their personal information will
be maintained privately. If a breach occurs, then this will hinder the
organizations success through lawsuits or even the patient not
entrusting the provider with all their health background, which could
lead to lack of quality of care.
The legal and ethical considerations presented are a violation of
HIPAA Privacy Act. The issue is this could lead to a patient’s data
being misused and costing the patient hundreds or thousands of
dollars from a stolen identity.
