Real-Life Decision Making -- Solution
You don't look at his file.
This is the real-life decision Ginger Bjornstad would make. People she knows are admitted to hospital from time to time, and she refuses to invade their privacy.
Recently, at the hospital she works at, a man from another state was flying in for a heart transplant. The man didn't want anyone to know he was there. The hospital was buzzing with rumors because of the mystery surrounding the patient.
"People who didn't work in the heart unit would log on and try to find him in the hospital," says Bjornstad. Human beings have a natural curiosity, but there really are some things that are none of your concern.
The hospital had an audit system that could determine who was trying to access the information and the guilty parties were disciplined.
"You have the key to the candy store. You can access the medical record of anybody. You need to have those ethical skills.
"Looking at a patient's information was very difficult with the manual system because there's only one paper chart. You can really only access it and use it if you're at the patient's bedside. Otherwise, someone will ask you what you're doing with the chart. Now it's on the computer. You can pull it up on any of 800 terminals in a building."
Today, privacy issues are a major concern for medical informaticians and health science professionals. Standards councils and guidelines are being put in place to ensure patient confidentiality and rights to privacy.