The Electronic Health Records
Electronic medical record is the acquisition, storage and retrieval of health care data in digital form. It has been touted has having the potential to improve the efficiency, safety and quality of health care service delivery (Wilder, 2010). Ultimately, it is expected that the health care being offered to individuals would be improved. Aside from this, electronic medical record would also be an easy and ready source of information for the purpose of research and administrative purposes for the development of public health policies (Wilder, 2010). The transition from paper to electronic records has been health care workers and patients have greeted a bumpy one, the electronic system is with some skepticism alike due to some issues with ethical and legal issues. This paper hereby examines some of the issues that have arisen with the proposed implementation of electronic health records. Issues to be examined include the legal and ethical issues with electronic health records, the laws currently in place to address the issues, the impact on the Health Information Management profession and their response to the challenges.
The issue of security of electronic health records has been a recurring issue. This is because of incessant breaches to electronically stored health information. This issue arose because patients have been having issues with health insurance companies who have been denying them health care coverage for pre-existing medical conditions when they want to change from one health care provider to another. This issue amounts to a breach in the privacy of information provided by these patients to their insurance company. This issue is not only related to electronically stored data but the issue is that this has brought to the fore the need to ensure more security in the way health care electronic data is stored, transmitted and used by various organizations. It shows a need for increased data security.
an ethical issue that needs to be addressed is the problem of classifying the health information of individuals such that the confidentiality of physician-patient is not compromised and at the same time, make information available to other cadres of health care workers and other people that might require the information. There is a need to define a level of access to the electronic information according to tasks that each health worker performs (Mizani & Baykal, 2007). If this is not ensured, information confidentiality may be compromised and over time, this may lead to reduced efficiency of the system because individuals would be unwilling to give accurate information about themselves, leading to deterioration in the quality of care they might get (Mizani & Baykal, 2007). To solve this, there is a need to develop an electronic privacy policy, which would take care of this concern by limiting access to sensitive information by those who do not require them for their duties (Mizani & Baykal, 2007).
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act, enacted in 1996 by the US congress has articles that discuss issues with health insurance for people. Title II of the act established a national standard for electronic health care transactions across the country (HHS, 2012). The HIPAA privacy rule is being enforced by the Office for Civil Rights.
The impact of these issues on the Health Information Management Profession is such that Health Information professionals need to abide by all statutory rules regarding the storage, retrieval and transmission of electronic records in order not to be liable in the breach of confidentiality and security of patient's data. In addition, professionals in this field have to undergo training in the legal implications of these issues so that it can be treated with uttermost importance.
In response to this, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) has developed a code of ethics that would guide professionals on the issue of privacy and security of health information pertaining to its storage, retrieval and transmission. It is known as the AHIMA code of ethics and it is meant to serve seven purposes.
The code is meant to promote a high standard of practice of Health Information Management. The code also identified the main values on which the Health Information Management mission is predicated. In addition, the code is a summary of all ethical principles that are part of the core values of the profession. The code of ethics also establishes ethical principles, which would serve as a guide to actions and decision-making process. Moreover, the code of ethics establishes a framework for the kind of behavior expected of a Health Information Management professional and the responsibilities that arise when there is a conflict between professional obligation and uncertainties about ethics.
The code of ethics also lays down ethical principles by which members of the public hold members of the profession accountable. The code, furthermore, is meant to serve as a mentoring guide to new practitioners in the field of Health Information Management as regards the mission, values and ethical principles of the association (AHIMA, 2011). The code also reiterates that a violation of the codes does not translate to automatic legal liability as such a determination would only be made in by judicial and legal proceedings. A peer review process would, however follow a violation of the codes. This review is only to discipline and counsel errant members (AHIMA, 2011).
REFERENCES
AHIMA (2011). American Health Information Management Association Code of Ethics. American Health Information Management Association. http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/bok1_024277.hcsp?dDocName=bok1_024277
Bruce, Wilder (2010). Electronic Health records: Emerging and Future Legal Issues. Wilder & Mahood PC. www.wildermahood.com/ACBA-EHR-Paper_2010-5-14.pdf
HHS (2012). Health Information Privacy. US department of Health and Human Services. http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/
M, Mizani & N, Baykal (2007). A Software platform to analyze the ethical issues of electronic patient privacy policy: the S3P example. Medical s2007; 33:695-698 doi:10.1136/jme.2006.018473. http://jme.bmj.com/content/33/12/695.full?sid=355ace79-4d49-4d82-a02c-4d161edec5cc
