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ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS PAPER
With all the crackdowns and enforcement of HIPAA there are not all that many violations in the news worth telling of. The article I found most interesting however was in HealthData Management. It told the story of how a pharmacy in Denver was recently fined for ignoring the standards HIPAA outlines with regard the proper way to dispose of PHI. 1
Historically speaking improper disposal of PHI, be it inadvertence, inconvenient or just plain negligence is the leading cause of improper or unauthorized disclosure of health information. Unauthorized disclosures have an impact on absolutely everyone involved. The patient whose information was released, the employee(s) who made the disclosure, the company the employee(s) work for and all of their peers.
HIPAA spells out in no uncertain terms the proper way to dispose of records. We must as health care professionals abide by these laws to safeguard our patient’s personal information. We must ensure that 1.any information that relates to the past, present or future condition of our patient is absolutely destroyed. 2. Any information that could identify the patient in any way must also be destroyed. 3. All prescription pads, notebooks, cd’s x-rays or anything that can be used to hurt the business or your patient must all be destroyed. 2.
Anyone whose information is improperly disclosed feels a sense of uncertainty, insecurity and a bit violated. They wonder what exactly was disclosed, who got their information and what if anything they intend to do with their information. Will their most personal health related information be passed out? Will their identity be stolen?
The entity that made the disclosure is impacted in that they will be scrutinized and expected to document and make corrective action plans for preventing things like this in the future. Depending on the severity of the negligence

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