You are the director of health information services in a major medical center that maintains both a psychiatric unit and a substance abuse unit in addition to general medical and surgical units. Your facility plans to join a computer network with fifteen hospitals throughout the state, which will allow online access to laboratory data, regardless of which facility performed the lab work. None of the other fifteen facilities offer psychiatric or substance abuse treatment.

Required:
Identify and discuss the confidentiality issues present with such a network in the light of the statutory, regulatory, and accrediting requirements governing patients treated in these units.

The following are some of the confidentiality concerns that may develop as a result of establishing a network connecting the databases of 16 hospitals:

1. The regulation mandates that individuals have the option of opting out of the facility directory or requesting that their health information not be utilized for any other purpose.

2. If a network is constructed, the restriction will be broken since frequent facility reporting would be easily accessible in other facilities, and preserving the information left will be difficult to manage if patients refuse to supply details.

3. Because data would be open and available to a bigger audience, the minimum criterion will be hard to sustain.

4. Establishing a network hospital will violate the 1974 Privacy Act, which places restrictions on the transmission of personal information to third parties.

5. Establishes use and disclosure criteria that set a baseline for keeping the amount of data used or disclosed to the "bare minimum" required to achieve the intended aim.

6. Patents tested, diagnosed, or treated for alcohol and drug misuse, sexually transmitted infections, or mental health disorders may be subject to additional privacy obligations.

7. Creating a network and sharing information with hospitals that do not have such treatment options entails disclosing highly personal information to those who are unaware of some of the most vulnerable patients.

8. Patients who are being treated for such an illness are afforded a high level of seclusion so that their social lives are not disrupted.

jayilych4real jayilych4real · Answer 2 · 2021-11-27T13:12:30+01:00

The identification about the confidentiality issues present with such a network of databases of sixteen hospitals is:

There is the issue of regulation where the people have an option to decide the hospital does not use their information for any other purpose
There is always the issue of patients refusing to give out their details, or incomplete details
It would be difficult to keep track of the information without a centralised database
There would be a violation of the 1974 Privacy Act if a hospital decides to set up a network containing patient information.

According to the given question, we are asked to show and identify the confidentiality issues which are present with such a network of databases of sixteen hospitals.

As a result of this, we can see that a hospital database would be useful so that the hospital workers can access medical records and other related information about patients and can be helpful in diagnosis, treatment, etc.

However, there are some issues which can arise as a result of confidentiality issues which has to do with statutory laws and regulation, etc.