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Protected Health Information

Posted in Uncategorized | August 27th, 2011

protected health information
Standard protocols?

An organization must identify who needs access to protected health information to carry out their job duties, the categories or types of information needed, and conditions under which access is given. Standard protocols are put in place, limiting the information disclosed or requested to the minimum necessary for that purpose.

Question: Imagine that you have been asked to summarize the protocol for someone’s regular access to health records in a medical office. Describe briefly who the person is (naming their job), what types of information they need, and the conditions under which they have access to it.

Here are some examples:
Doctors and Nurses who do direct patient care = no limitation on access
Release of Information= no limitation
Medical Records= no limitation
Pt registration and scheduling= limited access, they can have access to schedules and billing information but should not have access to medical history. There is not a need for these areas
Billing= no limitation
Even in all of these areas everyone should be reminded that everything is on a need to know basis, If you work in Billing and you are looking at a patient visit who you are not billing for- that is a direct privacy violation
If you are a physician or a nurse and looking at records of a neighbor or relative and you do not perform direct care on that patient and have not been asked to consult, that is a privacy violation. Employees who are violating privacy rights could face charges and fines. Just remember the need to know, if they do not need to know that information, they should not be looking at it.