Legal and Ethical Considerations in Healthcare - Essay Example

A compliance management officer would suggest to Mr. Stevens that he had the responsibility to inform the physician of his intended confidentiality with respect to his medical condition. He would also call for the exact maintenance of patients' records in the management system.

The problem is not a violation of compliance but a legal concern. There was nothing in the doctor's dictation that indicated that he was keeping his medical condition confidential from his family. Denise compromised this concern by leaving a voicemail message to the wrong number.

Mr. Stevens did not notify the management that his medical condition should be kept confidential. The phone number in the patient’s health record did not correspond with the one in the management system indicating an error during recording. Denise left a voice mail on the wrong number thus compromising the confidentiality intended (Abdelhak, 2007, p. 29).

The patient’s information in the control system should be similar to the one in the electronic record systems. This information should be verified to avoid inaccuracies. Minimal or no voice mail information should be left, but only appointment and time to avoid information from reaching the wrong person. A change in the work assignment would be assigning the work Denise to another person and ensuring always that the contact information of the patients is appropriate.

In an effort to reduce legal risk, the members of staff of the health information management (HIM) unit can guide clinical staff members to maintain health information storage, ensuring; integrity, security, and confidentiality to health information. They can also teach them to organize, code, and manage health information in an effort to ensure compliance behaviors (Abdelhak, 2007, p. 34).

Clinical documentation can be improved via teaching the clinical staff to; coordinate the collection of information, monitor the integrity of information, ensuring access to the information by qualified individuals, and monitoring regulations and standards that regard the management of information. Information should be provided when there is consent from the patient to enhance privacy (Abdelhak, 2007, p. 36).