Ethical Considerations of Health Information Management Essay

Ethical Considerations of Health Information Management - Essay Example Naturally, human beings are secretive and tend to limit the extent to which certain information concerning their social and health status should reach the public ear. Societal response to healthcare services often depends on the extent to which the health care service would infringe their civil liberty. This research examines possibility of privacy violation among the medical professionals as well as the effects of such violations to the patients. Problem Statement Handling of patients’ information is critical concern in the medical practice because it affects the liberty of the patient in one side and on the other side, it dictate the ability of the healthcare profession to discharge his duty. The consequent of the above phenomena is the need to create ethical codes that define the manner in which healthcare professionals should handle the patients’ information. In practice, medical officer often request clients to volunteer information concerning their health or perso n problems. This data is instrumental in discharging the right service to the patient as well as designing of an intervention mechanism to a disease outbreak in the society (Harman, 2001). Nevertheless, protection of the patient liberty is critical in ensuring effective service delivery. In this sense, handling of the patient’s information within the stipulated codes necessary, but the code should not bar the medical professional from protecting life. Summary of Research Sources Some critics have demonstrated concerns about the use of social network among medical professionals (Thompson et al., 2011). The fact that the medical professionals use social network aggravate the danger of violation of patient’s privacy. Recent studies indicate that medical institutions have established that some unprofessional medical students post medical information in the social network thereby breaching the patient’s privacy rights. Various laws defining medical practice tend to o utlaw activities or engagements between the medical professional and the public that would lead to breach of patient’s privacy. The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act define the extent to which the medical professional can share confidential information of the patients. The relationship between medical professionals and the patients is not only instrumental in defining the nature of the service delivered to the patients, but also affects the societal perception to the medical practice. Some critics show that patients are unwilling to visit healthcare facilities if their personal information were to reach the public ear (Neurodiagn, 2012). Arguably, this finding does not only affect the patient, but also the societal values establishing the medical practice. Some studies have sought to establish the influence of trust in medical practice (Thompson et al., 2011). Such studies shows that trust between the medical practitioner and the client dictate the nature of response that the patient would give to the medical officer. Information dissemination is a critical component of the medical practice. The medical practitioners rely on the information given to them by the patients. It follows that, lack of trust or breach of trust between the parties involves elicit poor service delivery. The handling of patient’