DATA PRIVACY AND HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - PATIENT DATA

 Electronic Health Records (EHR) technology was designed as a solution to the many issues that come with traditional records that are paper-based in order to improve the quality of healthcare and outcomes for patients. But, this system is rife with a myriad of limitations that could impact the quality of healthcare provided to patients and result in negative results. This article discusses one of the issues that are associated with EHR in the present era that is the issue of the privacy of patient data.

The first part of the paper outlines the chosen topic for this study as well as the reasons used to select the subject. The second section provides explicit arguments regarding how the subject will affect the practice either positively or negatively, listing the pros and cons that go along with it. pros. In the third part an explanation of how the abilities and skills were utilized during the development of the assignment will be presented. The final section is concluding where the main elements of the course are summarised.

The appropriate IT issue for this assignment is the issue of patient privacy of data within EHR systems. The subject was chosen in response to a report published on FierceHealthcare with the title "Decatur County General Hospital Informs 24K patients of data breach involving EHR Server" that can be downloaded by clicking this hyperlink. According to the report, Decatur County General Hospital is a hospital for the community in Tennessee as well as its EHR system was attacked by hackers that could have resulted in the leak of health records of more than 24,000 patients who are served by the hospital (Sweeney 2018, 2018).

This story raises the issue about the security of patient data and security when making use of EHR systems to enhance patient outcomes by providing timely and efficient care. This is the reason that was used to choose this topic.

Data security and privacy for patients are two of the primary specifications that every EHR system must meet. As per Aldosari (2017) the concept of data privacy concerns how information is collected and shared without being divulged to unauthorized third-party. Data security also encompasses security measures that protect security by blocking access by unauthorised parties such as hackers, and also protects against data corruption. Data security also comes into play, which is the extent to which data can be accessible to specific people. The data must be secure and kept from access by the public. This is why the reason for picking this subject was in the need of knowing the way EHR systems are designed to safeguard patient information by providing security, privacy and confidentiality.

The subject that is being studied for this assignment concerns the hacking of patient data within EHR systems due to cyber-attacks. All EHR systems must be designed to protect the privacy of patient data, security and confidentiality in the legal, ethical and regulatory guidelines of electronic health information usage in healthcare supply. But, the 24,000 patients affected by the decatur county general Hospital's data breach were able to have their personal data accessed by third-party parties.

As per Anthony and Stablein (2016) According to Anthony and Stablein (2016), privacy of patients is the right of patients to choose which, how, and with whom, and in the extent that their personal health information can be disclosed. Patients have the right to limit access to their personal information. Thus, systems for EHRs must include the proper mechanisms in place to guarantee the safety and security of the information they collect to avoid access by third entities. As in the instance of Decatur County General Hospital, this basic obligation for EHR technology was never fulfilled and the ramifications of this breach could be detrimental to the quality of care offered.

When patients discover that their personal health data is being accessed by unintentional third-party, they usually get angry and take different options. Certain individuals may file lawsuits, and hospitals then invest the little funds they have to settle lawsuits instead of working to improve the quality of the care provided to patients. Furthermore, when these violations occur, the hospitals are usually penalized by regulatory bodies and this can impact their capacity to provide quality care for patients. In the end, the quality of the care provided to patients decreases, impacting the outcomes of patients (Rezaeibagha, Win, & Susilo 2015).

Healthcare facilities and hospitals are strained by ever-growing demand for patients and the increasing number of them and demands, which are exacerbated by the absence of sufficient infrastructure development resources and an the insufficient staff. So, the limited resources should be directed to address these issues to improve the quality of healthcare. When incidents of data breach occur hospitals are required to invest money in unnecessary activities, like the payment of fines and settlements for lawsuits that impact the quality of care.

Furthermore even if hospitals do not get being fined or sued by regulatory agencies for breaches in data security, they still have to invest resources in repair of identity theft as well as monitoring of credit, notification expenses, investigations and even remediation. These unexpected expenses impact the ability to deliver prompt and high-quality medical care because of the lack of resources. In addition hacking EHR systems could cause disruption or even complete shutdown of operations which could affect the ability to provide the necessary healthcare services for patients.

In the same way, patients who are unhappy may choose to seek treatment at other places that can increase the burden of illness on the individual's finances. In the end, some patients might decide to stay away from seeking out medical services because of the uncertainty related to EHR or lack of funds. All these elements make it difficult where patients can access high-quality and timely medical that comes from a variety of providers. The sole benefit of an incident involving data breaches is the chance for affected facility to improve secure their infrastructure to guarantee the confidentiality and privacy of patient information, and to avoid any future incidents.

While working on this project my skills in informatics were beneficial in a variety of ways. For example, when deciding the subject, I utilized my expertise in healthcare informatics to determine an issue that could be a serious threat in the quality of the healthcare provided to patients. Furthermore, with my expertise in healthcare informatics, I was straightforward to find relevant information from the academic community regarding the possibility of data breaches that could affect EHR systems. In this way, I was able to complete the task with the help of relevant research articles, such as those in the reference. My understanding of the way EHR systems function and the prerequisites to be used within an legal, ethical and regulatory frameworks was also an important factor in the completion of this assignment.

The focus of this paper concerns the possibility of data breaches on EHR systems based on an report in FierceHealthcare on the same topic which involved a community hospital in Tennessee. The topic was chosen because it can affect the quality of healthcare provided to patients. Data breaches violate patients' privacy and the confidentiality of health information that they have provided via EHR systems. The effects of this event in the standard of healthcare are significant because hospitals are forced invest resources in non-essential tasks rather than concentrating on their essential task of improving the outcomes of patients.

My knowledge and skills in informatics played an important role in identifying the subject and collating relevant information to complete this assignment. In the near future hospitals need to protect patients' data by taking proper measures to prevent data security breaches. In the opinion of Kruse, Smith, Vanderlinden as well as Nealand (2017) the use of technical protections, like sophisticated firewalls as well as encryption methods can be utilized to increase security of data for patients. These safeguards can ensure that patients' data privacy and security.