This document discusses the importance of patient confidentiality and outlines some strategies for ensuring employee compliance. It recommends instructing new employees on HIPAA guidelines and continually reminding current staff about privacy protocols. Employees should be monitored on computers and aware of consequences for accessing unauthorized patient information. Interactive seminars with speakers who experienced privacy violations can help employees understand the impact. Role playing scenarios where an employee's privacy is violated can promote empathy for patients. Consequences for privacy breaches need to be clearly stated and fairly enforced depending on the type of violation.
2. Security • HIPPA – Employees need to be
instructed with new
employment, and continually
reminded about the strict guidelines
regarding patient information and
taught ways to ensure they are not
accidentally speaking when they
shouldn’t about a patient – or
looking at any information they
shouldn’t be looking at.
• Ensure employees know every move
they make on a computer is
monitored and that if they’re
accessing charts or parts of charts
they don’t need to there will be
consequences.
.
3. Tools to train
• Information seminars
that are interactive with
a speaker who has had
their privacy violated
will help employees
realize that sharing
information isn’t
victimless.
• Roll Play – having an
employee act as though
their privacy has been
violated will help them
be able to sympathize
with patients and their
family members.
4. Discipline:
There have to be consequences for employees
who choose to ignore the organizations policies
regarding privacy. They need to be clearly
stated, fairly enforces, and fitting to the action
taken by the employee (person hearing
information being shared verses person sharing
information)
