Using patient information properly, as well as providing immediate access to healthcare services to vulnerable groups, particularly, patients with disabilities, constitute some of the core ethical principles in healthcare. The past several decades have allowed improving the specified tasks substantially to minimize the range of risk to which patients are exposed (Costa et al., 2021). Since patient medical records enhance data management, and since HIPAA provides grounds for receiving healthcare services, both documents are central to the improvement in healthcare service provision and management.
Ensuring the privacy and security of patient data while facilitating its transfer from one healthcare expert to another represents a vital task. In turn, patient medical records, specifically, electronic health records (EHR) and electronic medical records (EMR) systems provide the specified opportunity (Yan & Ren, 2021). Due to the introduction of data encryption methods that prevent the systems from hacking, the specified technologies secure patients’ privacy while offering uninhibited access to critical patient data for healthcare experts (Yan & Ren, 2021). Similarly, the HIPAA regulation gives all citizens a chance to receive health insurance which will make access to quality healthcare services much easier (Costa et al., 2021). Presently, HIPAA guidelines include maintaining patients’ privacy at all costs, with the penalty for failing to meet them being a corresponding fine ranging from $100 to $50,000 depending on privacy breach severity (Costa et al., 2021). Therefore, both electronic patient records and HIPAA serve as vital tools in improving the efficacy of healthcare service delivery and the quality of patient outcomes.
Due to the opportunities that HIPAA offers for healthcare accessibility, and the options that patients’ medical records systems offer for patient data storage, the specified technologies are critical in improving the efficacy of healthcare. Namely, with the introduction of EHR into the healthcare environment, opportunities for minimizing medical errors emerge. In turn, HIPAA has provided a greater range of tools for addressing the needs of vulnerable patients. Therefore, both innovations can be seen as critical to the enhancement of healthcare service efficacy.
References
Costa, M., Reis, G., Pavlo, A., Bellamy, C., Ponte, K., & Davidson, L. (2021). Tele-mental health utilization among people with mental illness to access care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Community mental health journal, 57(4), 720-726.
Yan, X., & Ren, X. (2021). 5G edge computing enabled directional data collection for medical community electronic health records. Journal of Healthcare Engineering, 1, 1-12.