ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS

Electronic Health Record Confidentiality

Electronic Health Record Confidentiality

The world of technology has developed itself to an enormously high level where almost any and everything is possibly done electronically. Moreover, with such improvements throughout the world, the medical healthcare systems are also improving with every passing minute. Things are being moved from the manual ways to automation and the patient records and health records are also being recorded electronically [10].

One important aspect of any Health Record System is to ensure the confidentiality of the patient information because of its importance in the medical field. In order to better understand about what Electronic Health Records actually are; and how much does confidentiality matter in the Electronic Health Records; an in depth discussion regarding the relevant factors is required.

Contents

1.Definition of Electronic Health Records2

2.Purpose and Usage of Electronic Health Records2

3.Privacy and Confidentiality of Health Records2

4.Releasing Confidential Health Records3

5.Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records Act3

6.Protecting Electronic Health Records through Technological Tools4

6.1Providing Authorized Information Access4

7.Integrity and Security and Consequences of Information Leakages5

References6

Definition of Electronic Health Records

In the recent times, the individual patient's and population's health information is recorded in form of electronically accessible files known as electronic health records (EHR). The best thing about Electronic Health Records is that they are digitally compatible and hold the characteristic of being easily transferred across the internet [4].

A multitude of information is contained within the Electronic Health Records including billing information, patient's weight, age, vital signs, radiology images, laboratory test results, immunization status, allergies, medication, medical history and demographics etcetera [7].

Purpose and Usage of Electronic Health Records

Regardless of being in a paper form or electronic form, a medical health record is a tool of communication which helps in making clinical decisions, designing regulatory processes, accreditation, education, legal protection, research purposes, service coordination and evaluation of the efficacy and quality of healthcare provided [2]. Apart from these reasons, the Electronic Health Records are a very important tool being used in the field of medical to ensure efficient treatment provisions and effective problem solutions for the patients.

Privacy and Confidentiality of Health Records

Under the International Medical Laws, every patient holds the right to have privacy and confidentiality of their personal information. Privacy has been defined by different people in different ways with reference to their own perceptions. Some define privacy as having the right to being lonely; whereas others refer to privacy as the option of having to keep self information from being ...