Prepare a
2-page interprofessional staff update on HIPAA and appropriate social media use
in health care.
As you begin to consider the assessment, it would be an
excellent choice to complete the Breach of Protected Health Information (PHI)
activity. The 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 provided more access to health information and improved communication
between care providers and patients.
At the same time, advances such as these have resulted in
more risk for protecting PHI. Nurses typically receive annual training on
protecting patient information in their everyday practice. This training
usually emphasizes privacy, security, and confidentiality best practices such
as:
Keeping
passwords secure.
Logging
out of public computers.
Sharing
patient information only with those directly providing care or who have
been granted permission to receive this information.
Today, one of the major risks associated with privacy and
confidentiality of patient identity and data relates to social media. Many
nurses and other health care providers place themselves at risk when they use
social media or other electronic communication systems inappropriately. For
example, a Texas nurse was recently terminated for posting patient vaccination
information on Facebook. In another case, a New York nurse was terminated for
posting an insensitive emergency department photo on her Instagram account.
Health care providers today must develop their skills in
mitigating risks to their patients and themselves related to patient
information. At the same time, they need to be able distinguish between
effective and ineffective uses of social media in health care.
This assessment will require you to develop a staff update
for the interprofessional team to encourage team members to protect the
privacy, confidentiality, and security of patient information.
In this assessment, assume you are a nurse in an acute care,
community, school, nursing home, or other health care setting. Before your
shift begins, you scroll through Facebook and notice that a coworker has posted
a photo of herself and a patient on Facebook. The post states, “I am so
happy Jane is feeling better. She is just the best patient I’ve ever had, and I
am excited that she is on the road to recovery.”
You have recently completed your annual continuing education
requirements at work and realize this is a breach of your organization’s social
media policy. Your organization requires employees to immediately report such
breaches to the privacy officer to ensure the post is removed immediately and
that the nurse responsible receives appropriate corrective action.
You follow appropriate organizational protocols and report
the breach to the privacy officer. The privacy officer takes swift action to
remove the post. Due to the severity of the breach, the organization terminates
the nurse.
Based on this incident’s severity, your organization has
established a task force with two main goals:
Educate
staff on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.
Prevent
confidentiality, security, and privacy breaches.
The task force has been charged with creating a series of
interprofessional staff updates on the following topics:
Social
media best practices.
What
not to do: Social media.
Social
media risks to patient information.
Steps
to take if a breach occurs.
You are asked to select one or more of the topics and create
the content for a staff update containing a maximum of two content
pages. This assessment
is not an essay. It is a Staff Update about PHI.
The task force has asked team members assigned to the topics
to include the following content in their updates in addition to content on
their selected topics:
What
is protected health information (PHI)?
Be
sure to include essential HIPAA information.
What
are privacy, security, and confidentiality?
Define
and provide examples of privacy, security, and confidentiality concerns
related to the use of the technology in health care.
Explain
the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to safeguard sensitive
electronic health information.
What
evidence relating to social media usage and PHI do interprofessional team
members need to be aware of? For example:
How
many nurses have been terminated for inappropriate social media use in
the United States?
What
types of sanctions have health care organizations imposed on
interdisciplinary team members who have violated social media policies?
What
have been the financial penalties assessed against health care
organizations for inappropriate social media use?
What
evidence-based strategies have health care organizations employed to
prevent or reduce confidentiality, privacy, and security breaches,
particularly related to social media usage?
Notes
Your
staff update is limited to two double-spaced content pages. Be selective
about the content you choose to include in your update so you can meet the
page length requirement. Include need-to-know information. Omit nice-to-know information.
Many
times people do not read staff updates, do not read them carefully, or do
not read them to the end. Ensure your staff update piques staff members’
interest, highlights key points, and is easy to read. Avoid overcrowding
the update with too much content.
Also,
supply a separate reference page that includes two or three peer-reviewed
and one or two non-peer-reviewed resources (for a total of 3–5 resources)
to support the staff update content.
Additional Requirements
Written
communication: Ensure the staff update is free from errors that
detract from the overall message.
Submission
length: Maximum of two double-spaced content pages.
Font
and font size: Use Times New Roman, 12-point.
Citations
and references: Provide a separate reference page that includes 2–3
current, peer-reviewed and 1–2 current, non-peer-reviewed in-text
citations and references (total of 3–5 resources) that support the staff
update’s content. Current mean no older than 5 years.
APA
format: Be sure your citations and references adhere to APA format.
Consult the Evidence
and APA page for an APA refresher.
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