A Look at How Privacy is Kept a Priority with Electronic Health Records and the Impact of Technology on Healthcare

Today the health care field involves a lot of technology. We as nurses most commonly use the EHR, which is also known as an electronic health care record. Our computers have all of our patients information and for them I can see why that can be a little scary. I read an article on privacy with using the EHR and I was happy to discover that most hospitals have safe-guards under the HIPPA law to help us make sure that a patient’s records are kept as private as possible.  According to Leon Rodriguez, Former Director for HHS, Office of Civil Rights, “Specific to protecting the information stored in EHRs, the HIPAA Security Rule requires that health care providers set up physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect your electronic health information”(Rodriguez, 2011).

 In order to maintain privacy the security measures that may be included to help protect your information include passwords, audit trails, and encryption of data. I think that these are all important factors in keeping patient information safe. After all, we do need the technology because it helps us be more efficient, but we also want to protect patient information. 

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According to Thede and Sewell, “Information in a paper chart essentially disappears into a black hole after a patient is discharged. Because we can’t easily access it, we can’t learn from it and use it in patient care…If we are to provide evidenced-based care, the mountains of data that are hidden in medical records must be made to reveal their secrets”  (Sewell & Thede, 2013). I think that this is the most important reason to be using technology in healthcare. If we are to learn more and create advancement in patient care then we must learn to adapt and create new ways of looking at things and I believe that technology can help us achieve that. I do know that there are technical glitches, but they are less than human error and I also believe that that is another benefit to having an EHR. I hope that technology continues to grow and that we can learn more from it. 

References

Rodriguez, L. (2011, December 12). Privacy, security, and electronic health records. Retrieved from http://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/privacy-and-security-of-ehrs/privacy-security-electronic-health-records/

Sewell, J., & Thede, L. (2013). Informatics and nursing: Opportunities and challenges. (4th ed., pp. 4-8). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.