The Importance of the Patient Privacy - Essay Example

Introduction Confidentiality is considered as one of the most important aspects of medical profession as doctors and other healthcare services providers are required to ensure that the confidentiality about their patients and their medical information is protected under any circumstances. Earlier, due to limited availability of the written information on the patients, healthcare services providers were able to manage the confidentiality and privacy of their patients’ information however as the record and data management has become integrated the overall privacy of the patients have been put on risk too. (Brannigan & Beier, 1995) It is however, also important to note that the patients’ privacy is not just limited to the protection of their information. The article under study has further elaborated on this and suggested that the protecting a patient’s physical, psychological, spiritual as well as confidentiality are different aspects of the privacy which need to be maintained. Authors therefore argued that protecting each aspect of the patient privacy can improve the relationship between the healthcare providers as well as the patients. This therefore could further result into improved patient welfare and satisfaction. This paper will discuss the article with the name of “Patient’s Privacy and Satisfaction in the emergency department; A perspective Analytical Study” authored by Nahid Dehghan Nayeri and Mohammad Aghajani. Issue and its impact on the population Patient privacy has increasingly been viewed as one of the most important aspects of overall management and treatment of a patient in a hospital. It has now been established that the patients have different rights which need to be taken care of in order to ensure that the overall intrusion into a patient’s information is limited. This article has therefore attempted to highlight the issue of what patient’s privacy is and how it has been put on risk by the hospitals by not following certain procedures required to maintain such privacy. Authors argued that increased use of technology and digitalization of patients’ records have increasingly made it difficult for the hospitals to protect the privacy of the hospitals. It is however, important to note that there are different types of privacy and patients should be equal rights to get each of their privacy being protected from the intrusion. (T, Dixon, Olsen, & Grey, 2004) The authors in this article have discussed psychological privacy of the patients and suggested that hospitals are not being able to critically manage and protect the psychological privacy of the patients. Many studies have been cited suggesting that the patients believe that their psychological privacy has been intruded. The intrusion of the patients’ privacy is considered to have an impact on defining the overall relationships between the patients and the medical team besides maintaining the serenity of the patients. Authors argue that by improving and protecting the privacy, the overall patient satisfaction can be increased because protecting privacy by medical teams can result into improved patient satisfaction. Arguments and Facts used Authors argued that the patient privacy is considered as one of the most important aspects of patient care in Western world. However, they have observed that the same has not been observed within Iranian healthcare system. Authors further argued that since emergency department is considered as one of the busiest departments within a hospital therefore it can have a greater impact on the overall satisfaction of the patients. Authors further argued that the observing the privacy of the patients therefore essential for establishing a more satisfying relationship between the patients and the medical team. Authors have cited different studies as a matter of fact to establish that many patients often either don’t believe or don’t know whether their privacy has been respected or not. Authors have cited both the international as well as local Iranian studies to outline as to how patients view privacy within an emergency ward settings and how this may have an impact on the patient satisfaction and the respect for the psychological privacy of the patients. Ethical and Legal Issues Authors have been able to highlight the significance of respecting the privacy of the patients and the related ethical considerations. Protecting the privacy and different aspects of it therefore are considered as ethical conduct of the healthcare services providers. (Meier, 2002). By identifying generally the right to have privacy, authors have further highlighted ethical issues related with the violations of the privacy rights of the older people. Since older people tend to have less control over their healthcare choices, therefore violating their privacy may be relatively an ethical as well as legal issue. Further, patients with sever disability issues can also be further at risk of being ethically violated. As such it is important to consider that this may create strong legal issues. Authors have also highlighted a weak link between protecting the privacy of the patients and how medical teams operate within a healthcare service environment. This weaker link therefore may further create strong legal issues such as suit filed by the patients for disclosing their private information to irrelevant persons may become one of the common legal issues to be faced. Managerial Responsibilities Considering the given situation, it is critically important to understand the overall role to be played by the administrators of the hospital. On the operational efficiency and the overall market image of the hospital, managers may face strong challenges if the privacy breaches are higher. Since authors have clearly established a link between the customer satisfaction and the protection of the patient privacy therefore managers must ensure that the patient satisfaction remains on high priority. Managers must have to ensure that the medical team looking after the patients must be properly trained and informed about how they can actually take care of the patient privacy. Further, it is also important to ensure that the environment within the hospital is created in such a manner which can foster the privacy of the patients. Managers therefore must have to ensure the logistic problems such as creation of privacy areas, proper curtaining of the areas where patients are being treated, securing access to patient records etc are properly maintained. Proposed Solutions In order to overcome the ethical and legal issues related with the breach of patient privacy, it is important to take certain steps to make sure that the overall reputation of the healthcare service facility is maintained and could further result into better patient satisfaction. The steps could be: 1. Start to educate the medical teams regarding the significance of protecting the privacy and how it can have an impact on the patient satisfaction. Providing training and up to date information to the healthcare service providers therefore can help the medical team to be aware of how their actions may put the privacy of the patients at risk. 2. Develop checks and balances over the access and use of patient data by different persons within a hospital environment. By implementing proper checks and balances, managers can actually ensure that the data is access by the right persons for the right purpose. 3. Improve the environment of the hospital and redesign the hospital infrastructure in such a manner so that it can foster the protection of the patient privacy. Conclusion Patient privacy is one of the important aspects of providing the overall support to the patients however, medical professionals seem to be lacking in ensuring the same. Authors have successfully highlighted the important legal and ethical issues which may come across for the managers. Authors have further highlighted a stronger link between patient satisfaction and protecting their privacy. Further, authors have argued that the patients are increasingly facing the issue of their psychological privacy being breached. Bibliography Meier, E. (2002). Medical privacy and its value for patients. Seminar on Oncology Nursing , 18, 105-108. T, D.-L., Dixon, J., Olsen, D., & Grey, M. (2004). Privacy and confidentiality issues in primary care: views of. Nurs Ethic , 11, 378–93. VM, B., & Beier, B. (1995). Patient privacy in the era of medical computer networks: a new paradigm for a new technology. MedInfo , 640-643. Read More