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Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practices

Prepare a 2-page interprofessional staff update on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.

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As you begin to consider the assessment, it would be an excellentchoice to complete the Breach of Protected Health Information (PHI)activity. The will support your success with the assessment by creatingthe opportunity for you to test your knowledge of potential privacy,security, and confidentiality violations of protected healthinformation. The activity is not graded and counts towards courseengagement.

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Health professionals today are increasingly accountable for the useof protected health information (PHI). Various government and regulatoryagencies promote and support privacy and security through a variety ofactivities. Examples include:

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• Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR).
• Provision of EHR incentive programs through Medicare and Medicaid.
• Enforcement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules.
• Release of educational resources and tools to help providers andhospitals address privacy, security, and confidentiality risks in theirpractices.

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Technological advances, such as the use of social media platformsand applications for patient progress tracking and communication, haveprovided more access to health information and improved communicationbetween care providers and patients.

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At the same time, advances such as these have resulted in more riskfor protecting PHI. Nurses typically receive annual training onprotecting patient information in their everyday practice. This trainingusually emphasizes privacy, security, and confidentiality bestpractices such as:

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• Keeping passwords secure.
• Logging out of public computers.
• Sharing patient information only with those directly providingcare or who have been granted permission to receive this information.

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Today, one of the major risks associated with privacy andconfidentiality of patient identity and data relates to social media.Many nurses and other health care providers place themselves at riskwhen they use social media or other electronic communication systemsinappropriately. For example, a Texas nurse was recently terminated forposting patient vaccination information on Facebook. In another case, aNew York nurse was terminated for posting an insensitive emergencydepartment photo on her Instagram account.

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Health care providers today must develop their skills in mitigatingrisks to their patients and themselves related to patient information.At the same time, they need to be able distinguish between effective andineffective uses of social media in health care.

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This assessment will require you to develop a staff update for theinterprofessional team to encourage team members to protect the privacy,confidentiality, and security of patient information.

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Demonstration of Proficiency

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By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrateyour proficiency in the course competencies through the followingassessment scoring guide criteria:

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• Competency 1: Describe nurses’ and the interdisciplinary team’srole in informatics with a focus on electronic health information andpatient care technology to support decision making.
  • Describe the security, privacy, and confidentially laws relatedto protecting sensitive electronic health information that govern theinterdisciplinary team.
  • Explain the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to safeguard sensitive electronic health information.
• Competency 2: Implement evidence-based strategies to effectively manage protected health information.
  • Identify evidence-based approaches to mitigate risks to patientsand health care staff related to sensitive electronic healthinformation.
  • Develop a professional, effective staff update that educatesinterprofessional team members about protecting the security, privacy,and confidentiality of patient data, particularly as it pertains tosocial media usage.
• Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication tofacilitate use of health information and patient care technologies.
  • Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for citations and references.
  • Create a clear, concise, well-organized, and professional staffupdate that is generally free from errors in grammar, punctuation, andspelling.

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Preparation

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To successfully prepare to complete this assessment, complete the following:

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• Review the infographics on protecting PHI provided in theresources for this assessment, or find other infographics to review.These infographics serve as examples of how to succinctly summarizeevidence-based information.
  • Analyze these infographics and distill them into five or sixprinciples of what makes them effective. As you design yourinterprofessional staff update, apply these principles. Note:In a staff update, you will not have all the images and graphics thatan infographic might contain. Instead, focus your analysis on what makesthe messaging effective.
• Select from any of the following options, or a combination of options, the focus of your interprofessional staff update:
  • Social media best practices.
  • What not to do: social media.
  • Social media risks to patient information.
  • Steps to take if a breach occurs.
• Conduct independent research on the topic you have selected inaddition to reviewing the suggested resources for this assessment. Thisinformation will serve as the source(s) of the information contained inyour interprofessional staff update. Consult the BSN Program Library Research Guide for help in identifying scholarly and/or authoritative sources.

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Instructions

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In this assessment, assume you are a nurse in an acute care,community, school, nursing home, or other health care setting. Beforeyour shift begins, you scroll through Facebook and notice that acoworker has posted a photo of herself and a patient on Facebook. Thepost states, “I am so happy Jane is feeling better. She is just the bestpatient I’ve ever had, and I am excited that she is on the road torecovery.”

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You have recently completed your annual continuing educationrequirements at work and realize this is a breach of your organization’ssocial media policy. Your organization requires employees toimmediately report such breaches to the privacy officer to ensure thepost is removed immediately and that the nurse responsible receivesappropriate corrective action.

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You follow appropriate organizational protocols and report thebreach to the privacy officer. The privacy officer takes swift action toremove the post. Due to the severity of the breach, the organizationterminates the nurse.

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Based on this incident’s severity, your organization has established a task force with two main goals:

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• Educate staff on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.
• Prevent confidentiality, security, and privacy breaches.

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The task force has been charged with creating a series of interprofessional staff updates on the following topics:

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• Social media best practices.
• What not to do: Social media.
• Social media risks to patient information.
• Steps to take if a breach occurs.

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You are asked to select one or more of the topics and create the content for a staff update containing a maximum of two content pages. When distributed to interprofessional team members, the update will consist of one double-sided page.

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The task force has asked team members assigned to the topics toinclude the following content in their updates in addition to content ontheir selected topics:

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• What is protected health information (PHI)?
  • Be sure to include essential HIPAA information.
• What are privacy, security, and confidentiality?
  • Define and provide examples of privacy, security, andconfidentiality concerns related to the use of the technology in healthcare.
  • Explain the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to safeguard sensitive electronic health information.
• What evidence relating to social media usage and PHI do interprofessional team members need to be aware of? For example:
  • How many nurses have been terminated for inappropriate social media use in the United States?
  • What types of sanctions have health care organizations imposedon interdisciplinary team members who have violated social mediapolicies?
  • What have been the financial penalties assessed against health care organizations for inappropriate social media use?
  • What evidence-based strategies have health care organizationsemployed to prevent or reduce confidentiality, privacy, and securitybreaches, particularly related to social media usage?

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Notes

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• Your staff update is limited to two double-spaced content pages.Be selective about the content you choose to include in your update soyou can meet the page length requirement. Include need-to-know information. Omit nice-to-know information.
• Many times people do not read staff updates, do not read themcarefully, or do not read them to the end. Ensure your staff updatepiques staff members’ interest, highlights key points, and is easy toread. Avoid overcrowding the update with too much content.
• Also, supply a separate reference page that includes two or threepeer-reviewed and one or two non-peer-reviewed resources (for a total of3–5 resources) to support the staff update content.

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Additional Requirements

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• Written communication: Ensure the staff update is free from errors that detract from the overall message.
• Submission length: Maximum of two double-spaced content pages.
• Font and font size: Use Times New Roman, 12-point.
• Citations and references: Provide a separatereference page that includes 2–3 current, peer-reviewed and 1–2 current,non-peer-reviewed in-text citations and references (total of 3–5resources) that support the staff update’s content. Current mean noolder than 5 years.
• APA format: Be sure your citations and references adhere to APA format. Consult the Evidence and APA page for an APA refresher.

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