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Patient Privacy Action

Rose Hercules
Rasmussen University
Foundations of Pharmacy Practice
05/29/2021
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Patient Privacy Action

Importance of Patient Privacy

Patient privacy is very important as it promotes trust between the patient and physician,

thus allowing for the provision of quality care. The availability of patient privacy also ensures

effective communication which is very essential in preventing discrimination or embarrassment

to the patient. The HICPA Provides standardized procedures and regulations that work to ensure

people handling patients uphold utmost privacy in regards to individual medical records, and

other personalized health information such as medical diagnosis, medical history, and family

history (Iguchi et al., 2018). The HIPAA offers national guidelines that ensure privacy to

individual patients. Pharmacies need to comply with the HIPAA rules and regulations to create

trust between the pharmacies and the patients. The creation of trust boosts confidentiality and

promotes wellness and quality care. Failure to comply with the rules and regulations would thus

force one to face a lawsuit.

Consequences of Privacy Breach and Ensuring Patient Privacy

Patient privacy is a very important activity that is advocated for by bodies such as the

HIPAA. However, there are instances in which h breach of privacy and break of confidentiality

occur. Some of the consequences of breach of patient privacy include facing a lawsuit since the

patient has the right to bring up charges (Moore & Frye, 2019). Also, there tends to be a

weakened relationship between the patients and the healthcare provider, as trust is diminished.

Instances of breach of privacy cause the patient to seek compensation for damages on their

emotions, and reputations that ensue from the disclosure. Some of the physical and structural

barriers that could be put in place to ensure patient privacy include the issue of log-ins and
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passwords and having electronic data storage in particular physical points such a nursing

stations. Such kind of measure would thus ensure only authorized personnel access the data.

Training and Alternative Planning

Pharmacy personnel should undergo detailed training that would ensure patient privacy.

The training could be on several measures such as thinking about the patient first before thinking

about the data and staying up to date with the standard laws and regulations regarding privacy

and confidentiality (Mendelson & Wolf, 2017). The training should be regular and the relevant

bodies should ensure each staff is well equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge. The

pharmacies could also be informed on how to retrieve and store patient data information. For the

patients not comfortable with the semi-private settings, alternatives such as public insurances and

care can be considered as this would entail offering the patient what is in their best interest.
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References

Iguchi, M., Uematsu, T., & Fujii, T. (2018, September). The Anatomy of the HIPAA Privacy

Rule: A Risk-Based Approach as a Remedy for Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing.

In International Workshop on Security (pp. 174-189). Springer, Cham.

Mendelson, D., & Wolf, G. (2017). Health privacy and confidentiality. Health Privacy and

Confidentiality.

Moore, W., & Frye, S. (2019). Review of HIPAA, part 1: history, protected health information,

and privacy and security rules. Journal of nuclear medicine technology, 47(4), 269-272.