BUS FPX 3121 Assessment 2 Technology, Data Security and Ethics

Technology, Data Security, and Ethics

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BUS FPX 3121

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Healthcare technology has been a major factor in improving patient care, making access to and retrieval of simple medical information, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and health information exchanges (HIEs), easier. To some degree, these technologies are unethical and insecure, especially concerning sensitive patient information (Alomar et al. 2024).

The right of a patient to use technology to improve the provision of health care is worthy of discussion, together with patient rights in relation to patient privacy, patient data confidentiality, and ethical issues. It helps to clarify how and if technology, information security, and ethics can meet, and why it is important to consult the patient in order to obtain their consent, and how it might be achieved justly, in practice, within the current health care system.

Ethical and Clinical Considerations in Accessing Mental Health Records

These steps will uncover the mental illnesses in these comprehensive medical records that will assist ECSPs to deliver effective and safe treatment, with beneficence in mind. The connotative information about the prior history of suicide and medical regimen may be communicated in a couple of interventions during the anti-unsafe drugs undercurrents and missed diagnosis. The other option (which Hamad and Bah 2022 raise as a way to decrease medication errors) also involves a large degree of adopting an EHR application.

However, issues of autonomy and privacy can also be taken into account. Some of the mental health information that was shared amongst the general public (GP) may have resulted in stigma attached to the treatment, or, in favor of Sarah, as it is unacceptable and thoughtless of the GP. Without transgressing on their ethical and privacy rights, Sarah should have been able to have access to the relevant parts of her records and to make any decision they feel they have the right to make.

Seeking Consent and Provider Collaboration in Emergency Care

In an emergency, if the patient’s consent to the delay is obtained, it is ethical and most effective to delay treatment as long as possible, unless it is expedient to do so. The nursing staff and/or medical staff are supposed to ask for verbal consent to access and/or read information from Sarah’s mental health records, and the corollary to the moral principle of autonomy. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which allows healthcare professionals to disclose patient data in an emergency scenario, allows retaining the data to the maximum possible extent to deliver a service to the patient, but also restricts the disclosure of data to the minimum possible level (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024).

The appointment with a mental health specialist can also be conclusive in revealing central facts regarding her treatment plan, administration of drugs, and mental health susceptibility by mental health professionals. To illustrate this, one such real-world example is cited by Owusu et al (2022), which showed that good communication between the emergency department and the psychiatric department led to good outcomes and a low re-admission rate.

However, with an already conscious and vocal person like Sarah, it only makes sense to wait until the individual is in a position to make an informed decision, so she can tell her providers upon making the decision to further control her care. Last but not least, there will be the question of caregivers having to factor in urgency, the duty to the patient, and ethical issues when they are trying to look after Sarah and show respect for her.

Rationale

It is a show of respect to Sarah to obtain consent before accessing her mental health records; however, working in her best interest (beneficence) can be done in case of an emergency. HIPAA also enables the better exchange of information during emergencies, while not sharing unnecessary information. As a point of illustration, Shoja et al. (2025) discovered that by working collectively, healthcare staff could decrease the number of medical mistakes in patients with complicated medical records. 

Ethical Obligations

The telepsychiatry program at Intermountain Healthcare is a prime example of beneficence, which is defined as “doing good” (Shalev et al., 2024). This program helped to alleviate the delay in mental health care and provided more care for people who needed it in their emergency care setting. Among the non-maleficence examples, one could cite the introduction of barcode medication administration systems in different healthcare organizations; they help decrease the number of medication errors and increase patient safety to a substantial extent (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2021).

Lastly, health care equity, equitable access to health care and elimination of racial and ethnic disparities in health care have been accomplished as a result of the health care reform, specifically with the expansion of the Medicaid program, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (Lin et al., 2021). The following are examples of practices that can help develop a culture of responsibility and trust and demonstrate the importance of integrating ethical values into clinical practice. By tying these core ethical principles to the decision-making process, health care organizations ensure that they are providing effective and equitable care to all patients.

The ethical considerations in these scenarios are emphasized, highlighting the need to integrate ethical principles into medical practice, as they can greatly influence patient care and foster an atmosphere of responsibility and trust. Decisions that have to be made will be guided by the ethical principles, which will help ensure that healthcare organizations are not only certain that their clients are being served well but also equally.

Potential Consequences of Sharing or Not Sharing Information

The Mental Health data that would have come after emergency time would have ensured continuity of care for the patient, minimized ‘adverse incidents,’ and improved the treatment outcome. The timing of intervention delivery is also appropriate and relevant – as indicated in patient records and in the present document; this has a positive impact on patient outcomes and the re-hospitalization rate. However, such records may not be found if they are being propagated, and if there is an emergency, it could result in a delay of response; this is something that has been seen in hospitals that have had issues with patients’ records being falsified, resulting in a delay in response in emergency cases.

Moreover, even if the patient is suspected, it will be assumed as the long-term impact of decision making process related to the sharing and nondisclosure of the mental health record related to the situation of information discharge, in the following, the patients will not approach healthcare professionals to overcome the medical problems in the future and the specified outcome will also result in misunderstandings about the accessibility to healthcare and medical stigmatization will occur. They’re not just health-related issues, but also ethical issues, and are seen as the benefits of ensuring patients’ health and the integrity of the healthcare system.

Conclusion

Finally, the present assessment may be said to be a statement of the highest necessity for changing the ethical dogma to necessity by healthcare leaders. Autonomy, goodwill, no maleficence, and the idea of establishing justice in decision-making will help improve patient-centered care and the integrity of the healthcare authority system. The telepsychiatry service and medicine safety are practical examples of the necessity of knowledge sharing when necessary, and the risks of not sharing knowledge. Finally, and importantly, ethical leadership in health care goes hand in hand with the reasonableness of the kind of influence that can result in patient outcomes and the credibility of care.

Next Assessment: BUS FPX 3121 Assessment 3