Ethical Issues and the Electronic Health Record - Essay Example

"Ethical Issues and the Electronic Health Record" is a brilliant example of a paper on the health system. Implementing EHR within the healthcare setting can be an effective option and it will increase the overall productivity of the hospital and decrease the cost of operations. Besides decreasing the cost of operations, EHR also helps healthcare professionals to make well-informed decisions safely and quickly, minimizing the room for any adversity. It is because of this reason that the obsolete record system at palliative/hospice care should be replaced with the EHR system. The staff must be trained to operate this new system. Training must be conducted to avoid errors. As there is a long queue of patients waiting for their turns to be discharged, this causes chaos in the hospital setting and it is not considered to be an ethical practice. Implementing an EHR system will help the hospital to establish an ethical practice, as the patients will get more benefits and face a less chaotic environment (Ash & Bates, 2005).

Natalie Rutherford:

The right to provide privacy to the patients is the responsibility of the healthcare institutions; therefore every measure should be taken to ensure that the confidential information of the patients is not leaked. It is the growing need of the cancer hospital to implement an EHR system. The papers are not safe anymore and the old record system does not provide any backup for the important information. The ethical concern, in this case, is that if the private information of the patients goes in the wrong hand, it might be misused against them. In such a case the cancer hospital will be held responsible for not maintaining the ethical standards and the privacy of the information. Therefore it is better to implement the EHR system as soon as possible (Layman, 2008).

Hallenbeck:

The information present in the medical record of the patients is considered to be highly private and it is against medical ethics to pass this information to family or relatives of the patients without their consent. However, there are certain conditions where the information of the patients can be shared with their relatives without being considered unethical. There are times when a patient may suffer from traumatic injury and he or she is not in the condition to make a decision. It is then that the medical information of the patients can be shared with their relatives to save their lives.

Carol Sotir:

Safeguarding the private information of the patient and not passing it further to anyone else without any valid reason is the responsibility of the healthcare professionals. Technology has created a number of advantages in the field of medicine but it has also challenged some of its aspects on ethical grounds. Even the EHR system that is used in hospitals is not safe. The hackers may get into the system and modify the information or use it for negative purposes. There is a need for making the EHR system stronger. The backup of important information must be kept by the hospital and used when needed. The clauses included by Carol in the ethical statements make sense, as the privacy of information is one of the important concerns of healthcare professionals.

Aimee McPeck

The medical professional must be taught the actual and in-depth meaning of being ethical with the patient. The patients should be treated with respect and not just like a mere responsibility. The patients are already suffering in one way or the other; therefore it is the responsibility of the healthcare professionals interacting with them to make them feel better. The additional ethical clauses that must be added should include that the healthcare professional with access to the patient’s medical history must not pass on the information to any other colleague of theirs if there is no valid reason. However, if any of the healthcare professionals is found violating the ethical standards by passing on the information or discussing the confidential information of the patient with anyone else without any valid reason, then he or she must be held accountable by the concern healthcare authorities (Dickert & Kass, 2009).

 

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