Importance of Maintaining Privacy in Health Care Practice

Importance of Maintaining Privacy in Health Care Practice

Introduction

The confidential nature of the relationship between the clinician and the patient and respect for patient autonomy constitute reasons for protection of personal information. These are compelling reasons to avoid the use and disclosure of private information about a patient. Keeping in view the significance and growing needs of elderly privacy, the paper analyses the concept of privacy in health care highlighting its importance, and the research justifying the need.

Definition of Privacy

Privacy is the area of life that focuses that a person is entitled to protection from interference to remain confidential (Tomes, 1994). The right to privacy is part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This means that it is a right inherent in every person, inalienable, indispensable and independent of any factor. Like the rest of human rights, the right to privacy is a guarantee of the dignity of the person that cannot be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy. Privacy in healthcare refers to:

The adequacy of space and resources available in health centers for better delivery of services directly related to the protection of user privacy.

The adequacy of the functional organization of services to ensure respect of dealing with patients.

The addition of behavioral treatment in respect of patients, in each process of care and action.

Importance of Privacy

People are strongly encouraged to provide personal information as that health care providers spend a lot of time collecting this information and they rely on the accuracy and completeness of such information. The lack of complete and unhindered communication between patient and provider of health care increases the risk of misdiagnosis and treatment, non-compliance and inadequate care, injury prosecuted judicial and death. It is; therefore, expected to fully inform the patient about health care and to furnish complete and accurate information, without waiting for requests. If the protection of privacy is based on trust and that it facilitates the free flow of information between the patient and the provider of health care, it is logical to conclude that one must integrate the protection of privacy in health care, but the question is how? The answer is not obvious (American Medical Association, 2009). This lack of clarity affects the decision-making on the protection of privacy, because stakeholders struggle to define the issues in this regard.

Decision makers rely on so the effective delivery of patient care, which lends itself to more assessments, is easy to understand. To make good decisions concerning the protection of privacy, priority should be given a comprehensive approach that can clearly identify the problems in this regard and resolve them effectively. The protection of privacy in the health care industry can be analyzed based on four activities: information collection, processing information disclosure and intrusion in the life private. Treatment information includes various ways of linking data a person, and the consolidation of data, identification and secondary uses, including the combination of various data systems to create associations (Tomes, ...