Importence of Patient Protection Policies and the Role of HIPAA in Implementation

Nurses are trained and encouraged to forever use patient-centered approaches in the nursing practice. Different healthcare systems across the world have established a certain set of policies that are aimed at protecting the patients from the possible unfortunate events that may occur in healthcare facilities. The healthcare systems and the governments considered the fact that each person has his or her rights and each person’s rights should be respected especially in the healthcare settings where patients are vulnerable to different challenges. A patient’s right to security, privacy, and confidentiality are captured in almost all healthcare systems’ laws and policies. It is important for hospitals or healthcare related organizations to implement policies that protect patients (Baicker & Chandra, 2017). To begin with, the term security refers to the direct protection of patients and more specifically the approaches or methods used to protect the patients’ personal information.

The security of a patient also covers the means used to encourage and support all healthcare providers in keeping and holding the patients’ information in confidence (Agris & Spandorfer, 2016). In healthcare, the security aspect has for many years been utilized in protecting patients’ information in paper form or electronic record systems. The security aspect was a serious issue to be considered and implemented in the healthcare when it came to the transfers of a patient’s information especially in cases that involved the billing of the services offered to the patient in question. In an attempt to distinguish the confidentiality from the other terms, it is important to note that the term refers to the obligation of healthcare providers or professionals who have access to the personal information of patients assigned to them to hold the specific information in confidence.

Health policies have far-reaching impacts, and all the stakeholders should involve in the implementing process. All citizens are entitled to the most fundamental right of receiving the best possible care when in need regardless of their originality, race, religion, and gender. Health policies play crucial roles that enable the proper functioning of the health system and also safeguarding the rights of the patients. First, health policies are important in helping healthcare experts to adhere to the established professional practices. Secondly, the policies help promote compliance with regulations, accreditation requirements, and statutes (Luyckx, Biller-Andorno, Saxena & Tran, 2017). They always hope to meet professionals that they can confide in and be offered services that are tailored to their needs. Dementia patients should be treated with approaches that help in reducing stress symptoms and encourages independence and choice.

It is important for organizations to implement health policies to encourage collaborative work from the qualified and employed staff. The HIPAA encourages collaborative work among the nurses to increase efficiency and patient safety. A patient’s safety will always be at risk in any setting that does not promote collaborative work. The rule was designed to cover the healthcare providers, the patients, health plans, the public, and the experts involved in the transmitting of health records. Health plans are individual or group schemes that offer or take care of the medical care costs for patients or any other people seeking healthcare services. The plans are offered by health insurance and maintenance organizations. The privacy rules come into play by ensuring that these organizations do to take advantage of the public by using patients’ information for the wrong purposes (Rothstein, 2013).