Data Privacy in Health Care: A Comprehensive Overview - Essay Sample

Introduction

The health care sector entails various aspects and activities that concern all the parties and stakeholders. Some of these activities and aspects include data and information storage, medical service deliveries, billing sections for payments, and policy implementations. This paper focuses on provided comprehensive summaries of some of the operations in the health care sector in the United States of America.

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Data privacy in health care facilities is one of the main items of concern due to the privacy required for the patients. It ensures that all the records and other key information obtained from the clients are well taken care of and free from damage and access by unauthorized personnel. Digital era has brought numerous items like apps, trackers, digital kits that make work easier in the health care sector. Although some of the Americans are using such items, the majority of them believe that their privacy is compromised while using such methods due to the current and rampant cybersecurity issues. It is, therefore, of absolute concern to enhance effective data storage in the American health sector.

Moreover, the issue of discussion is on cultural care, which is a critical aspect of the health care sector. It is important in the healing process of the patients hence making it a vital parameter in the latter sector. Based on the research, the health care sector in the United States of America lacks this key aspect hence making the patient feel neglected, and some feel discriminated. The aspect is of great concern due to its role in the healing process of the patients. An opinion on this issue is that the relevant health authorities, such as the national standards on health, should establish cultural cure implementation procedures and enroll in all the health care facilities with strict adherence concerns to ensure full materialization.

Physician-assisted suicide is another important issue in the health sector. Although this end of life option has been gazetted into law through various Acts and legislations, it is the worst mistake a medical physician can do.

The conditions given that are allowed by the national standards on health that allows both parties to engage in end of life option does not give enough decision window (15 days) to the patients (American Hospital Association, 2020). Despite the fact that autonomy of the patient is practiced and other factors included prolonged terminal illness, it still feels like a violation of human rights to assist a patient in committing suicide using a professional approach. It is, therefore, important to revisit and amend the end of life options.

Another important aspect is the healthcare sleep deprivation among the health workers due to duty turns and the urgency of attending to the patients. On average, physicians sleep 6.5 hours per day on a workday. 70% of medical professionals claiming they need at least 7 hours a day to function at their best. Based on this assertion, it is of concern to know the health status of the medical officers since lack of sleep is attributed to health failure and deteriorating mental capacity. An opinion on this matter is that the health care facilities should recruit an adequate number of physicians so that they can have a duty roaster, which will enable them to have enough sleep through effective turns. Based on the effects of not having enough sleep, one of the key concerns is that the situation may lead to negligence by the affected physicians hence affecting the overall quality of service.

Finally, the last healthcare issue is prescription drug pricing, which has led to the increased cost of medical supplies in the United States of America as compared to other global countries like the United Kingdom and Canada. An opinion on this health care aspect is on the 330 Billion dollars allocated by the United States national standards on health in 2017 (REACH, 2017). The amount should again be channeled to the research and various invention and innovations that will improve the quality of services in such facilities. Moreover, the medical insurance organizations like Medicare, Medicaid should cover all the citizens regardless of their income, and age so that it makes medical services accessible to all the US citizens.

References

American Hospital Association (2020). Becoming a Culturally Competent Health Care Organization | AHA. https://www.aha.org/ahahret-guides/2013-06-18-becoming-culturally-competent-health-care-organization

REACH (2017). State-Local Health Programmes. https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/state-local-programs/reach/pdf/REACH-overview-2017-508.pdf