Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practices

Prepare a2-page interprofessional staff update on HIPAA and appropriate social media usein health care.

As you begin to consider the assessment, it would be anexcellent choice to complete the Breach of Protected Health Information (PHI)activity. The will support your success with the assessment by creating theopportunity for you to test your knowledge of potential privacy, security, andconfidentiality violations of protected health information. The activity is notgraded and counts towards course engagement.

Health professionals today are increasingly accountable forthe use of protected health information (PHI). Various government andregulatory agencies promote and support privacy and security through a varietyof activities. Examples include:

• Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR).
• Provision of EHR incentive programs through Medicare and Medicaid.
• Enforcement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules.
• Release of educational resources and tools to help providers and hospitals address privacy, security, and confidentiality risks in their practices.

Technological advances, such as the use of social mediaplatforms and applications for patient progress tracking and communication,have provided more access to health information and improved communicationbetween care providers and patients.

At the same time, advances such as these have resulted inmore risk for protecting PHI. Nurses typically receive annual training onprotecting patient information in their everyday practice. This trainingusually emphasizes privacy, security, and confidentiality best practices suchas:

• Keeping passwords secure.
• Logging out of public computers.
• Sharing patient information only with those directly providing care or who have been granted permission to receive this information.

Today, one of the major risks associated with privacy andconfidentiality of patient identity and data relates to social media. Manynurses and other health care providers place themselves at risk when they usesocial media or other electronic communication systems inappropriately. Forexample, a Texas nurse was recently terminated for posting patient vaccinationinformation on Facebook. In another case, a New York nurse was terminated forposting an insensitive emergency department photo on her Instagram account.

Health care providers today must develop their skills inmitigating risks to their patients and themselves related to patientinformation. At the same time, they need to be able distinguish betweeneffective and ineffective uses of social media in health care.

This assessment will require you to develop a staff updatefor the interprofessional team to encourage team members to protect theprivacy, confidentiality, and security of patient information.

Instructions

In this assessment, assume you are a nurse in an acute care,community, school, nursing home, or other health care setting. Before yourshift begins, you scroll through Facebook and notice that a coworker has posteda photo of herself and a patient on Facebook. The post states, “I am sohappy Jane is feeling better. She is just the best patient Ive ever had, and Iam excited that she is on the road to recovery.”

You have recently completed your annual continuing educationrequirements at work and realize this is a breach of your organization’s socialmedia policy. Your organization requires employees to immediately report suchbreaches to the privacy officer to ensure the post is removed immediately andthat the nurse responsible receives appropriate corrective action.

You follow appropriate organizational protocols and reportthe breach to the privacy officer. The privacy officer takes swift action toremove the post. Due to the severity of the breach, the organization terminatesthe nurse.

Based on this incident’s severity, your organization hasestablished a task force with two main goals:

• Educate staff on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.
• Prevent confidentiality, security, and privacy breaches.

The task force has been charged with creating a series ofinterprofessional staff updates on the following topics:

• Social media best practices.
• What not to do: Social media.
• Social media risks to patient information.
• Steps to take if a breach occurs.

You are asked to select one or more of the topics and createthe content for a staff update containing a maximum of two contentpages. This assessmentis not an essay. It is a Staff Update about PHI.

The task force has asked team members assigned to the topicsto include the following content in their updates in addition to content ontheir selected topics:

• What is protected health information (PHI)?

• Be sure to include essential HIPAA information.
• What are privacy, security, and confidentiality?

• Define and provide examples of privacy, security, and confidentiality concerns related to the use of the technology in health care.
• Explain the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to safeguard sensitive electronic health information.
• What evidence relating to social media usage and PHI do interprofessional team members need to be aware of? For example:

• How many nurses have been terminated for inappropriate social media use in the United States?
• What types of sanctions have health care organizations imposed on interdisciplinary team members who have violated social media policies?
• What have been the financial penalties assessed against health care organizations for inappropriate social media use?
• What evidence-based strategies have health care organizations employed to prevent or reduce confidentiality, privacy, and security breaches, particularly related to social media usage?

Notes

• Your staff update is limited to two double-spaced content pages. Be selective about the content you choose to include in your update so you can meet the page length requirement. Include need-to-know information. Omit nice-to-know information.
• Many times people do not read staff updates, do not read them carefully, or do not read them to the end. Ensure your staff update piques staff members’ interest, highlights key points, and is easy to read. Avoid overcrowding the update with too much content.
• Also, supply a separate reference page that includes two or three peer-reviewed and one or two non-peer-reviewed resources (for a total of 35 resources) to support the staff update content.

Additional Requirements

• Written communication: Ensure the staff update is free from errors that detract from the overall message.  
• Submission length: Maximum of two double-spaced content pages.
• Font and font size: Use Times New Roman, 12-point.
• Citations and references: Provide a separate reference page that includes 23 current, peer-reviewed and 12 current, non-peer-reviewed in-text citations and references (total of 35 resources) that support the staff update’s content. Current mean no older than 5 years.
• APA format: Be sure your citations and references adhere to APA format. Consult the  page for an APA refresher.

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