The risk assessment
The risk assessment performed on the security incident on page two of Irina’s horrible, no-good, very bad day shows that there was an unintentional data breach that led to the release of several secure hospital records on Friday the 13th. The documents were private and confidential patient records that were recklessly handled and shared with the unauthorized parties by the compliance officer at the medical records from the hospital’s database. According to the legal opinion of the hospital’s competence officers against improper disclosure, is that the patients’ have the freedom to sue the hospital for releasing their information without their authorization.
As a result of Irina’s actions place the hospital in a vulnerable position to get sued for a security breach according to the HIPAA omnibus rule. The reason that qualifies the incident as a breach is because the law makes sure that business associates and subcontractors are liable for their own breaches and require business associates to comply with privacy and security rules.
With my keen analysis as the compliance officer, the security incident statement makes it evident that the records and tasks assigned to Irina leaked sensitive patient information, which gives the patients grounds for a lawsuit against Chico hospital because HIPAA does not permit it. Although the security incident report shows that the breaches were not intentional for Irina or the hospital’s personal gain, the hospital and Irina can face both civil and criminal liability for the release of the information. To prepare the analysis, a risk assessment of the information provided on Irina and how her actions related to the leak of sensitive patient information. Irina’s sly attempt to derive gratification from Darren’s interest caused her to misplace the medical records from the OB/GYN department and send patient records that had the wrong dates. It also causes her to fail to review addresses and send unauthorized medical records to the incorrect address to which a patient was well renowned among a series of other incidents in the day. The assessment also uncovered that Irina’s coffee intake increased her adrenaline, causing her heart rate to increase, which made the Jitters from Darren’s encounter more heightened.
The course of action is to keenly analyze employee socialization frequently to apprehend mistakes in their duties by using stipulated HIPPA laws. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) law significantly helps to reduce the abuse of healthcare functions by establishing strict standards on how to handle patients’ medical information. The hospital staff needs to realize that to improve the protection and confidential handling of patient records. They must identify and meet the required standards. This helps to assess patient satisfaction, employee performance, and input in the hospital while protecting the hospital from legal action.
Another probable course of action for Chico hospital would be notified authorities and management to file a data breach notification. This would help familiarize the employees with hospital breach conduct, sensitivity to patient information, and HIPPA standardized stipulations. This significantly improves the quality of healthcare service provided because it reduces the chances of future data breaches and increases the number of breaches reported. This requires that the hospital have a section for breach and incident reporting in their policies and procedures manual where employees can be trained to efficiently to minimize unauthorized access to patients’ information from the medical records department. Breach notification is quite a broad field and therefore requires keen observation as it spreads from employee initiation to management training.
The most effective recommendation would be to start by effecting regular risk assessments to analyze the medical record department in the hospital to identify possible data breach vulnerabilities that need attention. This would make it easier for the department heads to prioritize them in significant order of actualization. This helps the hospital to streamline resources and reinvest diligently in employee training. This recommendation does not require a lot of financial aid yet provides a much-desired management resolve that helps lessen and gradually waive breach of confidentiality on hospital records.