Prepare a 2-page interprofessional staff update on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care. As you begin to consider the assessment, it would be an excellent choice to complete the Breach of Protected Health Information (PHI) activity. Protected Health Information- Social Media Best Practices Protected Health Information- Social Media Best Practices This activity will support your success with the assessment by allowing you to test your knowledge of potential privacy, security, and confidentiality violations of protected health information. The activity is not graded and counts towards course engagement.

Protected Health Information- Social Media Best Practices

Healthcare professionals are accountable and answerable for their use of protected health information. Protected health information (PHI) is defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as “any individually identifiable information relating to the past, present or future health status of an individual created, collected, transmitted or stored by HIPAA-covered entities and their business associates” (HIPAA Journal, 2018). Privacy, security, and confidentiality of health information are promoted and supported by various regulatory agencies and the government. Health data relating to health care providers, such as medical histories, diagnoses, treatments, medical test results, demographic data, payments for health services, and insurance information, are protected under HIPAA. HIPAA Security Rules demand the implementation of safeguards to ensure the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of PHI, while HIPAA Privacy Rules restrict the disclosure and use of PHI. Privacy violations attract significant penalties for both healthcare workers and organizations.

Privacy is a person’s right to restrict personal confidential information from being disclosed to unauthorized persons (Harman, Flite & Bond, 2016). While in a conversation with friends, a nurse can violate patient privacy by unwittingly posting information about or a photo of a patient on a social media platform. The HIPAA privacy rules dictate that any clinical data posted on social media concerning a patient must not have any personal identifying information or revealing references (Ventora, 2017). Confidentiality limits the access of health information to health care professionals and the patient. A confidentiality breach occurs when a health professional or health care provider discloses confidential patient health information to other persons in the absence of consent from the said patient. Security entails ensuring that access to an individual patient’s personal information is permitted and restricted to authorized persons only (Liu, Musen & Chou, 2015). Security breaches occur when unauthorized personnel, such as hackers, access confidential health information. Data integrity and privacy can be protected by implementing security measures such as firewalls, antivirus, and intrusion detection software. HIPAA requires all covered entities to regularly evaluate their data security protocols and implement risk management programs to mitigate any identified vulnerabilities (HIPAA, 2021).

Technological advances have provided increased access to electronic health information and improved communication between patients and their care providers, such as electronic health records (Kruse et al., 2018). Simultaneously, these advancements have resulted in increased risks of breaches to health information privacy and security (Liu, Musen & Chou, 2015). With the advent of sharable links to social media platforms comes a plethora of security threats. Incidents of severe hacking and data breaches of PHI are on the rise in the United States and globally (HIPAA, 2021).

Interdisciplinary collaboration plays a vital role in safeguarding sensitive and confidential electronic health information. For instance, health IT personnel can work with other healthcare staff to educate them on social media use and the regulations stipulated by government and regulatory bodies to govern social media use by healthcare professionals. Adequate and proper training of interdisciplinary staff is essential to promote collective action and collaboration in ensuring patient privacy and confidentiality while protecting a health organization’s reputation.

The social media age demands all healthcare professionals be cognizant and familiar with state and organizational social media policies. Healthcare workers should avoid posting photos or stories concerning patients. The repercussions of reckless and inappropriate social media use can be costly, including fines or termination of violating professionals. The organization also suffers reputation damage and may incur costs in legal battles and fines in excess of $50,000 (HIPAA, 2021; Liu, Musen & Chou, 2015). Evidence-based strategies that healthcare organizations can employ to mitigate privacy, confidentiality, and security breaches, especially relating to social media use, include periodic regular training of healthcare workers concerning the use of social media and governing policies in the respective states and organizations, keeping passwords safe, logging out of public computers, education on probable violations and respective penalties, and upholding appropriate healthy physician-patient relationship boundaries.

References

Harman, B., Flite, A., & Bond, K. (2016). Electronic health records: p