In health care organizations, the uses of technology have created a more effective and efficient patient care environment. Health information technology (HIT), such as hand-held portable devices, has improved exponentially over the decades resulting in improved communication between health care organization staff and accessibility of patient files. However, the uses of hand-held portable devices are not entirely without faults. By identifying the benefits of hand-held portable devices, health care organizations must consider the impact of patient privacy and how to secure it within their environment.
Hand-held portable devices have been a blessing in the health care environment. The portability of a cell phone or a tablet allows physicians to access patient files anywhere and anytime. In addition, the use of pagers provides medical personnel the capability to reach a physician at any time. Pager networks provide better signal than cell phone signals and are more reliable than wireless internet signals. In the event of disasters, pagers were often most …show more content…
According to Pozgar (2016), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was designed to protect the PHI’s privacy, confidentiality, and security that is created, held, and used by a health care organization. Because of HIPAA, many health care organizations have created policies and procedures to minimize or eliminate the threat of patient privacy violations. This includes encrypting PHI, storing hand-held portable devices in a locked area, keeping inventory of all devices provided to medical professionals, installing radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on all devices, and remote capabilities on all devices to shut them down in case of theft (Barrett, 2011). Additional security policies and procedures can be added to reduce and eliminate the risk of patient privacy