MHA 690 Health Care Capstone

1. CONFIDENTIALITY
Dr. Sherrie Lu
MHA 690Health Care Capstone
April 3, 2014

2. Confidentiality 101
 What is Confidentiality?
 How can employees breach confidentiality?
 Confidentiality and the Law
 Criminal Penalties
 Personal Reminders

3. What is confidentiality?
The ethical
principle or legal
right that a
physician or other
health
professional will
hold secret all
information
relating to a
patient, unless the
patient gives
consent
permitting
disclosure (The Free
Dictionary, 2014).

4. How can employees breach
confidentiality?
 Viewing a clinical record of a patient you are not working
with.
 Sharing patient information with fellow co-workers, when
the co-worker does not have a “need to know.”
 Sharing patient information with outside parties (family
members, employers, stakeholders etc.) when a patient has
not granted permission for the information to be shared.
 Identifying or acknowledging a person as a patient of the
healthcare entity.
 Talking about patients while in the presence of others who
do not have and identified “need to know” (conversations
occurring in lunchrooms, hallways, bathrooms etc.).
 Sharing patient information electronically without the
proper releases, or on a secured/encrypted network.

5. Confidentiality and the Law

6. Criminal Penalties

7. Ask yourself these questions when
handling patient information.
Why am I sharing this information?
Is the person I am sharing patient information
with directly in the care being provided? Do
they have a legal right to know?
Would I want personal information shared or
distributed in this manner?
Have I properly secured my work station and
documents?

8. References
 The Free Dictionary (2014). Retrieved from
http://medical-
dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/confidential
ity
 U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (2014). Retrieved from
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/unders
tanding/index.html