Ethical opinions on computer confidentiality in health care - Essay Example

HEALTH DATABASE Introduction Modernization and other inventions have been dominating the current status of medical s. The present situations in the privacy and accessibility of medical data give solutions to the worldwide necessities. Cooperation in the aspect of medical institutions has been the famous philosophy in the previous decades wherein sustainability and the emergence of the health database are slowly gaining the recognition it deserves. Modernization of the health database is the present development amongst medical institutions and hospitals in their goal to maximize the technology and provide greater satisfaction for their clients.

However, this does not always happen particularly among underdeveloped medical institutions and hospitals that currently are not cooperative with the implementation of the health database. The Basic Guidelines in the Functions of the Health DatabaseThe patient should be informed immediately upon the availability of the computerized database. Proper explanations should be given to the patient regarding the accurate and dependable medical data that the computerized database can give in order to support the health care of patients.

At the same time, the potential hazards or risks of the computerize database should also be explained to the patient in the spirit of clarity and fairness. This way, the patient will have the freedom to choose whether or not he or she would want to utilize and be included in the medical database or not (Drozdenko 4). Whatever the decision of the patient would be, pressuring him or her to make an immediate choice would be unethical, and so the decision of the patient and the relatives has to be respected.

Corrections in the time and date must be marked and stamped because this will aid in the management of patient's health evaluation procedures. Any mistake or miscalculated time and date could be fatal for the patients and their families. The stamping of corrections somehow acts as a precaution during the process of the patient's recovery at the hospital. The use of stamping on corrections makes it a lot easier to perform care and evaluation for all patients. Patients should also be notified immediately regarding the purging of inaccurate information.

This is because inaccurate information can prove disastrous to the excellent quality of health services that are being provided to the patients. Computerized databases can only give advantages to the patients if the medical data that it stored on it is accurate. The computerized medical database must be online to the computer terminal when the patient or his or her relatives specifically request for the medical information to be displayed. This is done in order for them to verify if there is any inaccurate information that is registered on the database.

The patient always has the right to demand and see his or her personal medical profile upon his request, or the patient can command his or her relatives to request the medical database to be online upon his consent. Any erasure or destruction of records must always be approved by the respective physicians for security reasons. This is also a way to improve the quality of the medical information that is being stored in the database, where information regarding active patients is continuously being updated, while dormant or non-existing records of patients can be safely deleted upon the approval of the management and the physicians involved (Mannino 5).

This way, only accurate and updated medical information can be registered in the computerized database. The patient always deserves to know which persons and organizations are able to have a peek on his or her medical records. Otherwise, there would be a violation of privacy and the right for information for the patient. This way, the transparent communication can be established between the patient, the doctors or physicians, and the medical institutions involved. The patient can also have the easy access to his or her medical records at any time, and point out any irregularities or inaccurate information that is registered on the personal profile.

WORKS CITEDAMA: Helping Doctors help Patients. Retrieved August 16, 2007 at http://www.ama-assn.org/Drozdenko, Ronald. Optimal Database Marketing: Strategy, Development, and Data Mining. Sage Publications, Inc: 2002Mannino, Michael. Database Design, Application Development, and Administration. McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 2nd edition 2003