27 Oct Health Information Department at Rasmussen Medical Center has been through the facilities onboarding process, including training relative to patient confidentiality and signing the standard confidentiality agreement

An employee in the Health Information Department at Rasmussen Medical Center has been through the facilities onboarding process, including training relative to patient confidentiality and signing the standard confidentiality agreement. The employee is a Discharge Analyst who holds the RHIT credential and has had computer-based education on the AHIMA Code of Ethics and Rasmussen Medical Center’s Integrity Policy. Her primary responsibility is to analyze all outpatient ambulatory records to ensure accurate, complete, and timely documentation. The facility utilizes an EHR for documentation of all inpatient encounters and has an internal audit system tracking all access to patient records.

The Medical Center experienced a sentinel event wherein a patient died due to injuries incurred on an inpatient unit. The Privacy Officer audited access to the patient’s records and discovered the Discharge Analyst had accessed the patient’s records on five occasions and spent on average 15 minutes online each time the record was accessed.

A meeting was scheduled with the employee, yourself as the HIM Department Director, the Privacy Officer, and Human Resources (HR). The employee was presented with the audit trail and asked to explain her actions, given her work responsibilities were limited to outpatient ambulatory records. The employee admitted to accessing the patient’s record and acknowledged her understanding of patient privacy policies but did not think it related to her. She is an employee of the Health Information Department, given she had access to the EHR for all patient types. She did not have a work-related reason for accessing the record but was curious about what had happened. This incident is the first documented incidence of unethical behavior by the employee. The Privacy Officer, HR, and you will need to confer and decide on the appropriate action. Fortunately, your professional organization has provided an Ethical Decision-Making Process for you to follow.

Instructions

Develop a one to two-page document that:

Analyzes the ethical issue in the scenario.

Identifies the facts and stakeholders in the scenario.

Explains the options that could address the ethical issue in the scenario with alignment to the HIM values at risk.

Recommends the best decision with justification for the decision.

Describes the action steps needed to prevent this ethical issue from reoccurring.

General Requirements

Uses correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation in the one to two-page document.

Includes citation for credible sources used to support ideas in APA format at the end of the one to two-page document.