According to Brown (2009), the security of digital health information refers to the protection and the privacy of the patients’ information. It defines the professionals holding the information with confidence. Health information security has been applied even before the technological involvement into the use of digital techniques used to store such information. Use of locked cabinets to store the patients’ files was used in the past. With the technological improvement of using electronic health records to store the information, the need for secure health information regulatory guidelines is becoming more apparent. One of the standard security rules embraced in most health institution including the one am familiar with is the goal of individually protecting patients’ information in electronic form. This privacy and safety rule allows the healthcare service providers to quickly access the information at the appropriate time while at the same time having flexibility in the adoption of new technology while safeguarding the information.
The health institution that is familiar uses monitoring of the system access as a way of safeguarding the security of the digital health information. The system requires the providing of verification and identification of the system users. This mitigates the possibility of an unauthorized person interfering with the system. Moreover, the institution supplies personal identification numbers (PINS) to the health care service providers. Making the systems physically inaccessible to unauthorized people is used as another security measure. The institution uses the monitoring and auditing of the users of the system as a security measure. Such procedures help in identifying the weaknesses of the system and detection any attempt of breaching the system. There are regular cases of the healthcare service providers not complying with the set guidelines being punished which is another way of protecting the information.
Nurses are involved with dealing with patients’ confidential information from the exam rooms, operating rooms, patients’ bedsides and to nurses’ workstations. Therefore, nurses should be in the frontline of complying with the information security guidelines. It is the responsibility of the nurse to be aware of the situation that the patient is in and apply the ideal strategy of protecting the patient’s information. In case there are passersby, it is the responsibility of the nurse to ensure that privacy of the patient is upheld. Some of the techniques that the nurse can adopt to ensure the privacy of the patient based on the Privacy Rule are the quiet discussion of the patient’s situation and protecting the patient’s information on screen from unathorised persons (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). Visual hacking is another issue that responsible nurses can help evade. Use of technological devices such as monitors, laptops, and mobiles can lead to unauthorized people viewing patients’ information if left with the folders open. It is the responsibility of the nurse to folders with the patients’ information and to lock the devices after usage. The nurse should properly delete the already used folders. HIT has made it easier to protect the patients’ information since, by compliance with the set guidelines, the nurses are at a position of avoiding the health information security breach.
Use of portable devices to store information to some extent increases the likelihood of security breach. Nurses can use such devices for personal usage hence mixing of personal information with the patients’ information. Besides, such devices can be easily accessed not only at the health institutions but also wherever the nurses carry them. As such, this increases the possibility of unauthorized users accessing the information. Among the different strategies used by this health institution, I consider the use of media controls and employing devices as a strategy of promoting the culture of safety. This approach entails backing up all data on hardware and proper data disposal through removing the data from the unused hardware. However, improvement is needed in the encryption of the information such that it cannot be accessed by people not familiar with the system. This can be ensured through data encryption which involves using cryptography to hide data in the medical files.
References
Brown, B. (2009). Improving the privacy and security of personal health records. Journal of Health Care Compliance, 11(2), 39–40, 68.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
