1. Privacy and Confidentiality
Training for
Health Care Professionals
Rebecca Kmett
MHA 690 Health Care Capstone
Ashford University
Dr. Sherry Grover
April 4, 2013

2. Issues
 Privacy and confidentiality of health information is
of paramount importance
 Health information is particularly sensitive
 Health workers are on the front lines when it comes
to safeguarding health information
 Privacy and confidentiality training often is confined
to a once-a-year training course or reading and
annual signing of a confidentiality agreement
 Over time, privacy and confidentiality may not
remain top of mind

3. Proposed Solutions
 Make compliance an everyday part of the culture
 Set up a compliance hotline so that staff members can anonymously
report privacy or confidentiality breaches
 Have a compliance officer or team in place to investigate issues
 Use online resources to track which staff members are logged in, only
granting access to those who require access to a record in order to
perform specific job responsibilities
 In conjunction with the legal and HR department, create a policy
that allows employees to be suspended pending an investigation of a
potential breach
 Perform surprise “spot checks” to uncover potential problems
 Have ad hoc meetings to immediately address any near-breaches or
unsatisfactory spot checks and discuss potential remedies
 Have leadership participate in online webinars and discussion
forums about compliance and report back to their teams

4. Proposed Solutions
 Make training fun and/or memorable:
 Create a “healthopoly” game modeled after Monopoly or the
game of Life
 Turn training content into game show questions and award
gag gifts to teams that perform the best
 Create a “Find the PHI” poster modeled after “Where’s
Waldo?” using a staged photo of the hospital’s registration area
and other vulnerable areas and have employees find all the
potential privacy threats
 Demonstrate the devastating impact of a privacy violation by
showing videos of people who have been affected
 Show a video of a former health care worker who violated
privacy and confidentiality practices and lost their job for it

5. Sample Game Show Trivia Questions
 What is PHI?
 Professional Health Inquiry
 Protected Health Information
 Private Hospital Intelligence
 After the passage of the HITECH Act, what is the
maximum fine for a breach of patient privacy? (NYU
Langone Medical Center, 2011)
 $250,000
 $550,ooo
 $1.5 million
 Any hospital employee can access a patient’s records.
 True
 False

6. Sample Game Show Trivia Questions
 What constitutes a privacy breach?
 Telling a friend or family member about a patient’s case
 Accessing a medical record even though it isn’t necessary to perform your job
duties
 Talking about a patient’s case within earshot of other patients
 All of the above
 What is the right thing to do if you suspect that a privacy violation
has occurred?
 Call the Compliance Hotline
 Talk to a supervisor
 Share your concerns with the patient
 The first two answers are correct
 If an employee violates a patient’s privacy and it was just an
accident, the hospital cannot be fined.
 True
 False

7. Sample Game Show Trivia Questions
 What could be stolen and used to inappropriately gain
access to patient records?
 Thumb drive
 Laptop
 iPad
 Printed documents
 Login and password
 Employee ID badge
 All of the above
 This hospital has never had a HIPAA privacy violation.
 True
 False

8. Sample Game Show Trivia Questions
 What is HIPAA? (DHS, 2013)
 Health Insurance Protection and Affordability Act
 Human Interaction Police Advisory Act
 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
 High Involvement Patient Autonomy Act
 Why do people violate privacy?
 They do something without thinking
 They don’t think they will get caught
 They think it won’t hurt anyone
 For financial gain
 Any of the above

9. Sample Game Show Trivia Questions
 High-profile public figures (celebrities, athletes) do not
have a right to privacy, and so you cannot commit a
HIPAA privacy violation by sharing their medical
information.
 True
 False
 These are potential consequences for employees who
commit a privacy breach.
 Fines
 Criminal sentencing
 Disciplinary action
 Loss of employment
 All of the above

10. Why Gamification Works
in Organizational Learning
 “Where processes are the point, gamification is
probably the ideal, cost-effective means of providing
rules-based learning systems” (St. John-Brooks,
2011)
 Games are engaging, interactive and fun
 When learners make an emotional connection with
the material, they are more likely to remember it
 “It was distressing how the public disclosure of that boy’s HIV
status caused him to be alienated.”
 “That was so much fun when our team won that trivia game.”
 “I was shocked by how much the hospital could get fined for a
privacy breach.”

11. References
NYU Langone Medical Center. (2011, May 3). HIPAA
Security: Harsh Fines, Penalties Are a Wake-up
Call to Us All. Retrieved April 4, 2013 from
http://compliance.med.nyu.edu/news/documen ting-
inpatient-admissions
St John-Brooks, I. (2011). What gamification can do to enhance
training. Benefits & Compensation International, 41(3),
28. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/901856212?
accountid=32521
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
(2013). Health Information Privacy. Retrieved April 4,
2013 from http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/