Smartphone Use in Healthcare Essay

Introduction

Social media, as well as mobile technologies, have increasingly become popular in the healthcare sector in directly supporting patient care and attainment of positive patients' outcome. The use of mobile technologies also enables health practitioners and caregivers to have a closer monitoring of their patients. Furthermore, through such tools, patients also benefit from ailments' self-management tools and they are able to stay in contact with their loved ones. However, the use of smartphones and social media platforms in the healthcare sector has raised massive privacy concerns and ethical issues among patients and clinicians alike. As such, there is a need for nurses working with patients in the clinical settings to comprehend the HIPAA provisions and other regulatory policies that protect patient information while in the healthcare sector. This research will address the HIPAA, legal and regulatory compliance policies that healthcare personnel working in medical institutions should comply with when using cell phones and social media. Furthermore, the discussion will provide an ending of the chosen scenario and provide necessary recommendations for the stated excerpt. Furthermore, the discussion will provide a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of cell phone and social media use in the healthcare sector and ultimately provide a conclusion and reflection of the research.

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HIPAA, Legal, & Regulatory Discussion

When it comes to social media and cell phone use in the healthcare sector, HIPAA guidelines states that nurses or healthcare practitioners should not include Protected Health Information (PHI) in their online postings (Trinckes, 2012). In this case, the PHI should be inclusive of all the information that can be employed to identify patients or even their medical records (Trinckes, 2012). Additionally, this is because the HIPAA, as well as social media use, can lead to the development of some of the most common misunderstandings that the healthcare practitioners face in their day to day practice.

For instance, nursing practitioners that are not properly trained on how to observe privacy policies when using cell phones and social media can potentially expose their institutions of work to costly fines for HIPAA violations. Moreover, the PHI protected by the HIPAA and other patient information protection regulations is any demographic data that can identify any of the patients' full names, age, social security, and dates of birth. Also, the protected data under the PHI should be that which can identify the patients' medical data, physical address, telephone number or financial information among others.

PHI is strictly protected by the HIPAA regulations under the HIPAA Privacy Rule as well as the HIPAA Security Rule. Also, the HIPAA regulations strictly forbid using PHI for any marketing campaigns that could be made via social media, cell phones, and other technologies. As such, such information should be avoided by nurses working in hospitals and using cell phones and social media, so as to protect the patients' privacy. Other laws that prohibit the exposure of PHI in a clinical setting that could also apply when nurses use cell phones and social media are inclusive of the Stark Law. Additionally, the Stark Law prohibits healthcare providers from referring a patient to other people that are not directly involved in the patient's treatment in the clinical setting (Cimasi, 2014).

In such a case, nurses could use social media and cell phones influence to connect patients to third parties with no impact on the patient's treatment or healing process. Lastly, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) policy can also be applicable in safeguarding PHI from being exposed by nurses in the clinical setting. Additionally, this is because the HITECH act is focused on addressing the privacy as well as security concerns of electronic health records that are employed in handling PHI in a clinical setting (Davis & LaCour, 2016). Also, the HITECH ensures that technology is properly implemented in the hospital among the caregivers.

Scenario Ending and Recommendations

The chosen ending scenario of the featured excerpt is number three. In this case, the nursing practitioner exposes Jerod's picture while at the hospital on Facebook. In this context, the nurse can be legally sued for HIPAA violations, since it exposes Jerod's healthcare information to other people without his consent. According to HIPAA policies, all nursing practitioners have a role to safeguard PHI from exposure without the patient's consent (Trinckes, 2012). Additionally, in this case, the best recommendation that would be offered to the nurse it to omit Jerod's name and picture on his/her Facebook post to ensure that Jerod's PHI is not exposed. Also, the nurse could use a fictitious name or the term "anonymous' in his/her Facebook post or offer general information, which can in no way help in identifying Jerod.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The primary advantage of using cell phones and social media at the workplace is that patients and nursing providers can attain essential healthcare education or information over the internet (Hao & Gao, 2017). Subsequently, such information could be good for promoting the attainment of patients' positive healthcare outcome. Contrary, one of the disadvantages of using a cell phone and social media in the healthcare setting is that it sometimes violates the confidentiality as well as the privacy of patients (Hao & Gao, 2017). Second, cell phones and social media in the healthcare setting can cause distractions during the healthcare personnel's working time (Hao & Gao, 2017). Subsequently, this may lead to low patients' healthcare outcome. Ultimately, despite the stated merit of employing cell phone and social media in the healthcare environment, users - especially nursing providers, must learn HIPAA guidelines. Additionally, this is to avoid exposing PHI to the public and in the process facing HIPAA violation charges (Trinckes, 2012).

Conclusion and Reflection

In conclusion, social media, as well as mobile technologies, have increasingly become popular in the healthcare sector in directly supporting patient care and attainment of positive patients' outcome. Additionally, the HIPAA guidelines affirm that nurses or healthcare practitioners should not include Protected Health Information (PHI) in their online postings when using cell phones and social media. Other policies like the Stark Law prohibits healthcare providers from referring a patient to other people that are not directly involved in the patient's treatment in the clinical setting. That is through all forms of communication including cell phones and social media. Lastly, the HITECH act is focused on addressing the privacy as well as security concerns of electronic health records that are employed in handling PHI in a clinical setting. As such, the HITECH Act can also be employed to prosecute healthcare provides who may expose PHI to the public via cell phones or social media. In light of this comprehensive research, I reflect that cell phones and social media can be good when employed in the healthcare sector for providing essential health education. However, such usage should only be done based on the provisions of HIPAA and other policies that prohibit the exposure of PHI without the patient's consent.

References

Cimasi, R. J. (2014). The Four Pillars of Healthcare Value. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Davis, N. A., & LaCour, M. (2016). Foundations of Health Information Management - E-Book. New York: Elsevier Health Sciences.

Hao, J., & Gao, B. (2017). Advantages and Disadvantages for Nurses of Using Social Media. Journal of Primary Health Care and General Practice, 1(1), 1-3.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Trinckes, J. J. (2012). The Definitive Guide to Complying with the HIPAA/HITECH Privacy and Security Rules. Boca Raton: CRC Press.