Interprofessional staff update on HIPAA
Prepare a 2-page interprofessional staff update on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.
Introduction
As you begin to consider the assessment, it would be an excellent choice to complete the Breach of Protected Health Information (PHI) activity. The activity will support your success with the assessment by creating the opportunity for you to test your knowledge of potential privacy, security, and confidentiality violations of protected health information. The activity is not graded and counts towards course engagement.
Health professionals today are increasingly accountable for the use of protected health information (PHI). Various government and regulatory agencies promote and support privacy and security through a variety of activities. Examples include:
• Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR).
• Provision of EHR incentive programs through Medicare and Medicaid.
• Enforcement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules.
• Release of educational resources and tools to help providers and hospitals address privacy, security, and confidentiality risks in their practices.
Technological advances, such as the use of social media platforms and applications for patient progress tracking and communication, have
Sample Solution
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is critical in protecting the privacy of health care information. In order to ensure compliance with HIPAA regulations, all healthcare professionals must be aware of the requirements for appropriate social media use in health care.
As social media usage increases among patients, providers must be aware of its potential risks and benefits. Social networking sites may provide a great opportunity for education, community outreach and communication between organizations and patients. However, it is essential to understand how to protect patient privacy when using these platforms (Young et al., 2019). Healthcare organizations must develop policies that address the appropriate use of social media by staff members, including guidelines on how to store records securely as well as what content can be shared publicly about patients or their treatment (Lambert & Paicely, 2017).
When discussing patient information online, health care providers should avoid sharing any identifiable patient data such as name or other personal identifiers (Young et al., 2019). Furthermore, they must bear in mind that even if a message appears anonymous or private on social media platform can still be accessible by others if posted publicly. As such, all messages should adhere to HIPAA requirements at all times (Lambert & Paicely ,2017).
It is important to remember that while there are many advantages associated with professional use of social media platforms within healthcare settings there are also some potential drawbacks which need to be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not it is appropriate for an organization’s HIPAA compliant policies(Young et al., 2019). Therefore it is essential that interprofessional teams take the time necessary to understand the implications for using these mediums appropriately so that both patient privacy and effective communication can co-exist without incident(Lambert & Paicely ,2017).
