Dina Dowden - Module 1 - Article #1
Social Media's Effect on HIPAA Privacy and Security
http://www.healthworkscollective.com/onlinetech/123841/social-media-s-effect-hipaa-privacy-and-security
Since we get a free pass on our topic this module I did some research on healthcare and social media. I work at a small health college in Iowa and social media and healthcare is a huge concern when it comes to our students. In fact just this morning I attended a meeting about training our students on HIPPA violations and how it is so easy for students to pass on patient information, unintentionally, by using social media. Just the comment of "I saw my neighbor Joan at the hospital this morning" can be a violation. Students have also been caught taking selfies and not realizing that a patient can be seen in the background. All shared within seconds by just a click of a button.
However, this article shares how social media can also be a huge help when it comes to healthcare. Healthcare education can be shared more easily to large groups of people using social media and has given nursing students a variety of learning platforms.
The article does a very good job of showing both sides of a very serious and complicated problem. While social media can be used to help educate the masses on healthcare it also has the potential to share confidential information concerning patients that violate HIPPA regulations.
I hope you enjoy the article as I found it very interesting and ties in very well with my job (working for a healthcare college) and shows both sides of social media.
I work as an athletic training student at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and HIPPA is a very prominent issue for us, because athletics are in such a major public view. There have been occurrences at other universities of students being kicked out of programs for violating HIPPA policy for simply answering questions to another student concerning an athlete's injury at a game, when everyone saw the injury.
ReplyDeleteI also take part in research at a sports clinic, and we have had many discussions on how to utilize social media to reach former patients for retrospective outcome-based studies.
Unfortunately, I believe that many instances of HIPPA violation go unnoticed or unreported, because of a lack of professional conduct. For a student athletic trainer, many of the students are personal friends, and for someone who might be a lower level health-care worker (example: CNA), relationships with residents are built, and it is not emphasized enough to them that the residents at a skilled care facility are still under the HIPPA and Protected Health Information policies.
I do believe that future health care will not reach its full potential and oversight until the use of social media is utilized properly and most efficiently.