Ethical Issues on Healthcare Website - Essay Example

ETHICS WITH RESPECT T THE HELATHCARE WEBSITE By English 19 April Introduction The word ethics is defined as the practice or implementation of moral reasoning of the good or bad effects of a result of a situation. Generally, every decision made by human beings is governed by ethic, whether that decision is personal or made under the influence of the society to which an individual belongs. Ethics is an important aspect of every profession especially healthcare services. Without ethics, all services can be muddled particularly in the sector of healthcare. This project is a web application for health service that allows the hospital staff and patients to communicate via a website, hence allowing a large number of users to share their personal information. Hence, moral and ethical attitude of the consumer of this website plays a major role in sustaining the records of this service. Discussion The people who browse this site are worried about the protecting their privacy not only while accessing the web service but also in their normal routines lives as the risk of incursion of personal privacy is very high in this website as in any other website that deals with the client’s personal information. In area of healthcare, the primary code that forms the foundation of any sort of treatments is chiefly the deference for the patient’s dignity. Respecting dignity also involves dealing with ultimate care with a patient’s info. Trust is an integral part of this project as it is the service’s responsibility to provide its users optimum dependability in terms of keeping their info safe from any sort of spasm or stalkers. Therefore protecting the personal information of the patients, which is collected from the hospital, is the foremost priority of the firm that maintains this website. If a situation arises in which it is necessary to share the info with an outsider, this should not be done before getting complete approval of the individual involved or the patient’s relatives (if the patient is not in a condition to give his/her consent). Only under two conditions such information should be shared i.e. if the management changes or the hospital is collaborated with another firm. In such a situation, information should be made available to the new administration as well. The idea of the website is to give quality health care services via internet. The various facilities provided by this website comprises access to doctors of personal records accessible online and allowing the patients to be able to seek advice regarding a particular medical state from other online members of the same forum. All the points stated above are at risk of high security susceptibility. In this situation, the ethical values of the hospital staff are very vital in maintaining a patient’s privacy. This project supervises the daily performance of healthcare experts. Moreover important clinical information is provided whenever it is required. By using Electronic Medical Record process this system also deals with the supervision of patient’s health check-up records, clinical notes, drug allergies and medical alerts. Since it is a site featuring complete histories of the patients, it utilizes optimum security measure available online. Nevertheless, in case of such websites, the security leakage avoidance cannot be dealt with by technical means alone. Fundamentally, it also depends on the professional behaviour of the individuals having right to use this information as well. Ethics in relation to its users and website is imperative since many incidents of security violation are observed on a daily basis in which a government firm’s or hospital security is totally sullied, which lead to failure of safe-keeping of the information of the patient’s medical history a secret. At times, it is complex to gauge the impact or size of a security breach. When anything of this sort occurs, it puts countless data records and many customers in jeopardy, and at times, it leads to the destroying of an entire business. When a leakage occurs not only a patient’s personal medical history is exposed but also the credit card details are accessible. In order to maintain the integrity of a business moral and ethical behaviour of the faculty is the fundamental component. The personal info available can be utilized for enrolling the customers for services and programs they require, following up on their orders and applications, for answering their e-mails or requests via web, for sending out, newsletters, notifications about meeting process surveys as well as to reply to a patients queries. The detail is also used to notify the patients about special discounts, new services that are offered and other information approved third parties or the hospital. Every healthcare expert should adhere to the professional values and ethics. Moreover, publics health concerns and needs should be taken as moral responsibility. Through critical appraisal and self-evaluation, the qualified groups, which use this facility, should alter and improve the practice of ethics and morals thereby setting an example and inspiring their professional community as well. High security measures have been taken to protect the patient’s information from intruders. Any third part if involved is bound by accountability and might be subjected to a set of rules, which includes criminal action and termination, if it fails to follow the regulations. The website further facilitates its users by offering to arrange with capable healthcare provider to treat or identify a health related issue, for enquiries about a particular health problem, or before introducing and beginning new treatment. The information available on the website is confidential and if it is leaked, it might create a lot of trouble for the patient. For example in the case of some genetic test result of a patient if the staff illegally provides it to the insurance company, there is a big risk that, the particular insurance company might discriminate through reduced coverage or pricing for that person. Alternatively, if the data somehow reaches the patient’s employer, the employer might take undesirable and unwanted employment decisions because of the individual’s genetic code. Conclusion Therefore, the ethics of the employees involved plays an integral role in security of the stored information. It is necessary to be cautious because even well established and highly maintained healthcare sites have a tendency for software malfunctioning or management issues. Consequently, the website should be treated just like any other assets and implement effective software management solutions to guarantee compliance by the hospital team. A new management program should be introduced which will allow the management to keep tabs of software programs more efficiently. In order to avoid breach of security, a software ethical policy should be formulated and practiced to stress the significance of used only a licensed software. Free software audit tools, which are accessible online, should be utilized to keep track of the actions of the hospital staff regarding the use of licensed or unlicensed software. Under thid contexr, healthcare facilities cannot be perceived as a commodity, since health is a blessing and it is an essential safeguarding of dignity and an individual’s life. Clients or patients should not take this healthcare facility for granted as an unlimited facility and a privilege, but as a responsibility or a right that involves equivalent obligations regarding public wellbeing, fairness and stewardship. References American Medical Association,” Medical Ethics”,14 March 2012 Zubizarreta, J. (2004). The Learning Portfolio. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Reflection John Zubizaretta (2004) reflection is important, “to improve student learning by providing a structure for students to reflect systematically over time on the learning process and to develop the aptitudes, skills and habits that come from critical reflection” (p.15). Although creating anything is a very long and difficult process as it requires a lot of research, a thorough grasp of all the concepts that are dealt with and compilation of ones thoughts into a coherent piece. Yet I think that rewriting is a tougher job because in this case an individual generally selects a piece written by some other author. This involves a lot of hard work because first, the individual has to understand the meaning and the perspective of the author and then out of it he/she has to assimilate his/her own meaning. Similarly while rewriting this paper I also came across some of the minor grammatical mistakes which one never notices in normal routine. However since I was rewriting this paper, it was my responsibility to check and recheck the paper for minor details. Then again, I also had to summarize and at times cut down on various sentences because I found them repetitive, as the impact monotonous sentences did not look like an impressive method of expressing ones feelings. Hence, I have tried to make this paper coherent, precise yet concise in meaning and have tried my best to capture the essence of the writer’s perspective about ethics in healthcare centres and websites. Therefore my over all experience of rewriting this essay has given me a chance to learn the art of expressing ones thoughts and point of view, in very simple and to the point manner. Moreover, it has also made me realize that verboseness is not mandatory the important thing is that one should use simple and clear words so that one does not convolute ideas, The writer’s focus should be on making his/her text simple enough yet rich in meaning so that all sorts of readers are able to understand his/her perspective. Read More