Reduction of the urinary catheter-associated infection
The personal health information should remain private and confidential at any given circumstance. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has categorized what information should be considered to be Protected Health Information (PHI). That information should be accessed by any authorized agent or person and should be heavily protected. HIPAA has identified all the information which can be used to identify private information such as birth dates, gender contact information as well as ethnicity. The other information which has been categorized to be PHI is the information that relates to personal future, current and past health information, diagnosis, and health insurance information. This information should not be subjected to unauthorized people or use. Personal geographical information should also not be exposed to third parties. However, HIPPA categorizes the information contained in the employment and the education documents not to be PHI.
The HIPAA has categorized PHI to only be accessible for third parties who are either doing marketing, fundraising purposes, and for research.
Reduction of the urinary catheter-associated infection
The project will involve collecting data on patients who have been using a catheter. It will also be established how this has led to the rise in related infections. The research will be conducted by first collecting data on all clinics which have treated people with catheter-related infections. The figures will be collected and the most common infections. The data collection will be done in different states across the country so to ensure that it covers a large and diverse geographical area.
The collection of information from clinics will also involve gathering information on different treatment procedures being used. This includes the people how the catheter is placed and the types being used. After collecting information on treatment procedures from the clinics, the research will focus on collecting personal information from the patient diagnosed. The clinics will provide information on the parts of patients using a catheter. Most importantly, it will be the patient’s contact information as the research must directly get information from the patients. In the process, the patients’ information will be kept private and confidential by the researcher.
The PHI collected from the patient will include their age and the time they have used the catheter. Additionally, research will get information concerning the infections which the patients have suffered associated with the catheter. The research will be trying to get the connection between age and infections. The time of using catheters will give insight into whether the infections are resulting from prolonged use of the catheter. The research will also try to give the connection between the Urinary tract infection (UTI) and the size of the catheter used. Using the patients’ medical history will be possible to establish this connection.
Lastly, the research will try to establish whether the infections can be connected to the hygiene of the patients. Hygiene is a factor that has been previously connected to infections related to the catheter. It includes whether the patients have been drinking enough water to excrete two liters of urine every day. This reduces the infection rate from the catheter. The research will also connect the infections with geographical location, gender, and ethnicity. The identity of the respondents and their location will also not be revealed during the publishing of the research. Once the causes are established, the study will recommend the methods which can be used to reduce the infections related to the use of a catheter.