Access to Health Care Records - Coursework Example

Response to Question One (Ethical Issues)

Access to health care records represents a degree of beneficence because they evidently reduce cost, improve the quality of health care, and improve the efficiency of medical care delivery. Nevertheless, the above benefits do not hold when dealing with disadvantaged patients such as psychiatric cases. The universal acknowledgement of the benefits of EHRs is therefore flawed. Sharing or revealing the patients data without their consent or permission violates the principle of autonomy. Additionally, there is breach of fidelity in cases of accidental leaks for example through hacking, theft, or honest mistakes (Morrison 145). Apparent lack of security in data or information concealment will certainly discourage the patients from disclosing sensitive information relating to health. Such may jeopardize the quality of treatment or medical care. Denial of equal access to medical services or resources pertaining to health information goes against policies on justice.

Response to Question Two (Recommendations)

According to HIPAA, health provision constitutes one of the most personal services in the contemporary setting, making confidentiality exceedingly necessary. There is need to limit the access of patient information by the health executives (Bayer et al 29). Moreover, the executives should ensure that institutional practices and policies that touch on confidentiality are in line with laws and regulations for example the Notice of Privacy Practices. Educating the medical personnel on measure to secure data is of great essence (Morison 146). To this end, the practitioners will understand their responsibility in maintaining data security and patient confidentiality. Conducting random security audit on the information systems will enable the identification of leaks or possible threats, thereby permitting the introduction of measures to curb the same. Finally, the system should be such that they are able to track leads on leakages and then deal with any disaster should they arise. Data backup or recovery is significant.

Response to Question Three (What the patients should Access)

Under normal circumstances, the patient should access all their medical records at a cost set by the state or the federal government. Such a practice will ensure that they take control of their health status through proper utilization of the information of obtained. Concisely, the disclosure should be in line with state and HIPAA provisions (Bayer et al 30).

Works Cited

Bayer, Ronald, John Santelli, and Robert Klitzman. "New challenges for electronic health records: confidentiality and access to sensitive health information about parents and adolescents." Jama 313.1 (2015): 29-30.

Morrison, E. (2016). Ethics in Health Administration: A Practical Approach for Decision Makers. Jones and Bartlett Learning (2016). Pp144 146, Chs. 8 & 13.

Morrison, E. &Furlong B. Healthcare Ethics: Critical Issues for the 21st Century (2014), Ch. 16