ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS PAPER Martina Amadi-Emina HCS 335 March-05-2012 Joann Wilcox

Administrative Ethics Paper Patient confidentiality is a major problem in the health care field. This particular issue affects nursing homes. Lately nursing homes are becoming more and more like hospitals.(Anthony Cirillo, .2012). In nursing homes, no one knows more about the patients living there than their caregivers, they know who goes through every patients room, their names, information and even the time of visit. There are various factors that conflicts with patient confidentiality but Im only going to focus on two. Electronic medical records have a huge potential for misuse; things such as employee identification badges have a major flaw in them. Another person can use it as a sigh in to gain access to patients records, especially if there isnt a picture on it just names and numbers that serves as the identification. In Assisted living things like medical records are not always guarded properly. Some nurses just wave these identification badges in a managers face and have access instantly, theres no proper evaluation to see if the holder of the badge is really who he or she say they are. Electronic medical records are sometimes not guarded by any identification in assisted living, some nurses can just go o the front desk, say the patients name which they require more information about and get it instantly. There has to be more confidentiality in between the health care system itself, not just for outsiders. If any nurse or caregiver needs information about a patient, they should at least jump some sets of hoops to gain it. The identification method also has to be changed. The healthcare system should try to adopt a different system or all such as; medical ID cards, ID bracelets, drivers licenses and implanted chips.- (Anthony Cirillo, 2012). As a proposed solution. These alternative systems mentioned above can at least bring some sanction and rationing to whoever uses or gets hold of patient information. There should also be major consequences added to the reparation of violating the HIPAA. Cultivation; there is difference in cultivation, meaning treatment of types of patients. In the nursing home some patients are treated differently than others and sorry to say sometimes money influences this; which is very unethical. This can also affect patient confidentiality, come caregivers think because they have a certain bond with their patients they can disclose other

patients information to them, caregivers seem to speak more freely to the patients they connect with which is can have both a negative and a positive impact. Positive as in, these caregivers take extra care of their patients, and negative as in disclosing information about themselves, other patients and even the patients that they have that connection with. If the information is something not suitable for the patient, it could send them into frenzy. HIPAA made these rules governing patient privacy for a reason, and the simple fact that caregivers ignore it is pure disrespect to the rule, to themselves and to the patients that these rules govern. An administrator is immediately entrusted with the ability to make smart, swift, and deliberate decisions considering patients confidentiality. A healthcare administrator is responsible for the organization of his or her organization; he or she is holds the right to any patient information and how he or she uses it should be within the confidential rules of HIPAA. The administrator should consider all sides of what could go wrong for his or herself, the patient and the caregiver; its not only about preserving the patients confidentiality but also ensuring that you are doing the right thing for yourself and the organization which you represent. Sometimes there are situations where patient confidentiality may be vigorously tested. In The Online journal of Issues in Nursing; under what circumstances confidential information should be disseminated is an issue that most administrators encounter sometime in their administrative practice. Ethical as well as legal questions often surround the release of confidential information. Administrators are duty bound to respect the confidentiality of information they acquire, maintain, and use in their role as an agent of the organization.- (The American Nurses Association, .1985). It is very tricky knowing something very important about somebody or something and not being able to share it without the person in questions consent; doing so will be referred to as idle gossip, which in some way it really is. There will come a time which d information required would be of life and death; still the administrator should have enough common and ethical sense to ask for the patients consent. What exactly is an ethical issue? An ethical issue in my opinion is a situation whereby the solution requires deep thought and consideration in ones self for a desirable outcome which an individual can live with. Ethical issues depend on both ethical quarries and ethical responds; ethical quarries are ones which require a defined technical system to predict a plausible outcome; which is also called an ethical respond. When an administrators ethics are questioned in terms of patient confidentiality it could cause for a shift in loyalty and trust, the administrator should never give anybody a reason to doubt him or her, the healthcare system is a very knit tight organization with strings attached to it; so whoever makes it into the organization should be able to know his or her duties and how to comply with the rules, and ethics will be a major struggle. There are easy simple solutions for these issues. First of the entire administrators hired should be able to handle ethical issues that involves his patients; second the administrator should teach the caregivers also how to handle ethical issues. Third; the patient record should be guarded more, the caregiver who asks for information should have to produce a better

identification to gain access. The HIPAA law should be regulated more often and higher consequences should be enforced for better obedience toward the law. Patient caregiver relations should be kept to a minimum to avoid unintended disclosure of patients information to other patients to avoid any ethical issue. Finally, the main thing to take away from the administrative ethics is that the decision to do right by your patients and by the organization you represent is in the hands of the administrator itself; you should let your conscience lead you in the right path but you should also take in consideration that you have the life of someone in your hands, any little information could either hinder or help a person. Do the right thing; follow the law that governs this rule (HIPAA). References: American Nurses Association. (1985). Code for nurses with interpretive statements. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved on March 8, 2012 http://nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/Tableof Contents/Vol31998/No3Dec1998/PrivacyIssues.html Security and Privacy in Nursing Homes: HIPAA Compliant Technologies Protects Residents, Visitors, Staff By Anthony Cirillo, Retrieved on March 8, 2012. http://assistedliving.about.com/od/healthcaretechnology/a/Security-And-Privacy-In-NursingHomes.htm