Requirements: • Research, compose, and type a scholarly paper based on the scenario provided by your faculty, and choose a conclusion scenario to discuss within the body of your paper. Reflect on lessons learned in this class about technology, privacy concerns, and legal and ethical issues and address each of these concepts in the paper. Consider the consequences of such a scenario. Do not limit your review of the literature to the nursing discipline only because other health professionals are using the technology, and you may need to apply critical thinking skills to its applications in this scenario. • Use Microsoft Word and APA formatting. Consult your copy of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, as well as the resources in Doc Sharing if you have questions (e.g., margin size, font type and size (point), use of third person, etc.). Take advantage of the writing service Smart Thinking, which is accessed by clicking on the link called the Tutor Source, found under the Course Home area. • The length of the paper should be four to five pages, excluding the title page and the reference page. Limit the references to a few key sources (minimum of three required). • The paper will contain an introduction that catches the attention of the reader, states the purpose of the paper, and provides a narrative outline of what will follow (i.e., the assignment criteria). • In the body of the paper, discuss the scenario in relation to HIPAA, legal, and other regulatory requirements that apply to the scenario and the ending you chose. Demonstrate support from sources of evidence (references) included as in?text citations. • Choose and identify one of the possible endings provided for the scenario, and construct your paper based on its implications to the scenario. Make recommendations about what should have been done and what could be done to correct or mitigate the problems caused by the scenario and the ending you chose. Demonstrate support from sources of evidence (references) included as in?text citations. • Present the advantages and disadvantages of informatics relating to your scenario and describe professional and ethical principles appropriate to your chosen ending. Use facts from supporting sources of evidence, which must be included as in?text citations. • The paper’s conclusion should summarize what you learned and make reflections about them to your practice. Preparing the assignment Background Healthcare is readily embracing any technology to improve patient outcomes, streamline operations, and lower costs, but we must also consider the impact of such technology on privacy and patient care. Choose an ending to the scenario, and construct your paper based on those reflections. Choose one of the following outcomes: 1. A HIPAA violation occurs, and client data is exposed to the media. 2. A medication error has harmed a client. 3. A technology downtime that impacts patient care occurs, and an error is made. 4. A ransomware attack has occurred, and the organization must contemplate paying the ransom or lose access to patient data. Follow these guidelines when completing this assignment. Include the following sections: a. Introduction • Catches attention of the reader • States purpose of the paper • Provides a narrative outline of the paper (i.e., the assignment criteria) b. HIPAA, Legal, and Regulatory Discussion • Presents evidence from recent scholarly publications to address the impact of technology on nursing care related to: • Patient privacy and HIPAA standards • Healthcare regulations • Legal guidelines on appropriate use of technology c. Scenario Ending and Recommendations • Selects and presents one scenario ending as the focus of the assignment. • Evaluates the actions taken by healthcare providers as the situation evolved. • Recommends actions that could have been taken to mitigate the circumstances presented in the selected scenario ending. • Supports recommendations with evidence from recent scholarly publications. d. Advantages and Disadvantages • Presents evidence from recent scholarly publications to address the impact of technology on nursing care related to: • The advantages of appropriately using technology in healthcare • Risks of technology use in healthcare • Describes professional and ethical principles guiding the appropriate use of technology in healthcare. e. Conclusion and Reflections • Summarizes what new information was learned by completing this assignment. • Reflects on how this new knowledge will impact future behavior as a healthcare professional. f. Scholarly Writing and APA Format – • Paper submitted as a Microsoft Word document. • Adheres to current APA formatting guidelines. • Length is 4?5 pages, excluding title and reference pages. • Includes at least three (3) references that are: • From recent (within the last 5 years) scholarly sources • Cited in text appropriately • Included on an APA formatted reference page • Scholarly writing reflects: • Accurate spelling • Correct use of professional grammar • Logical organization of thoughts (mechanics)
 

Background

While technology has been used significantly in the healthcare industry, there are negative aspects that arise within privacy, legality and ethics. Therefore, it is vital to evaluate both sides of the coin when considering technological applications in healthcare. This paper shall discuss the ending scenario, HIPPA violation occurs, and client data is exposed to the media. Furthermore, the scenario in question pertains to working in a medical center amid the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Introduction

Modern-day technology is quite the development and creation, and one could agree that it is the contributing factor in increasing efficiency within the healthcare industry. Furthermore, in the interest of increasing efficiency, the health industry is becoming more digitized in how it manages information, but as privacy concerns arise, such as information leakage from cyber-attacks the ethics are questioned (Geisler & Heller, 2012). Therefore, being that a doctor-patient relationship provides for the ethical provision of confidentiality, unethicality issues arise. Given the nature of the Covid-19 pandemic, technology has played a key role in the healthcare industry (Yamamoto et al. 2021). While the pandemic, Covid-19 caused the death of millions of people, the reality is that technology was used to store the data of these patients (Mukherjee, 2021).  Notably, during the pandemic, the number of patients were significantly high to the hence technology aided in the recording of such data.  Furthermore, through technology, patients and medical practitioner interaction was limited hence protecting the nurse or doctor from the pandemic for example through telehealth which places restrictions on direct contact.

Therefore, this paper seeks to determine the effects of technology implementation on healthcare while considering privacy and ethical concerns and analyzing the abovementioned scenario. Consequently, this paper shall make recommendations to the ending scenario provided and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of technology in healthcare. 

HIPAA, Legal, and Regulatory Discussion

Technology is not HIPPA compliant, beginning with the fact that there are concerns regarding encryption. Consequently, the patient's privacy is compromised. Whether it is Covid 19 or any other disease patients never want their personal information released. Where there is protected health information, the data may be illegible, unusable, and impossible to analyze hence the need for encryption (Chen, & Benusa, 2017). Therefore, for compliance within healthcare to occur, it is essential to ensure that each user applies the same operating system, which is not the current case. Furthermore, proper compliance of HIPPA demands for a logging-out feature which also inhibits HIPPA compliance. HIPAA-compliant methods require automatic log-offs must be includes in this security feature as part of their design. Even while most commercially accessible text-messaging programs, Skype, and Gmail all provide a log-off button, how many users utilize them? As part of the HIPAA compliance requirements, the automatic log-off requirement ensures that whenever a device is left unattended, the user is disconnected from the technology to avoid unauthorized access to protected health information by a third party (Chen, & Benusa, 2017). Regarding healthcare law, there is another other than the HIPAA, which is the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; the legislation has been given the authority to supervise the elevation of healthcare promotion information technology (Congress, 2009).

Legal regulations in this case include international conventions, ethics committee, national laws as mentioned above and professional code of ethics. Within the context of code of ethics, the most relevant in the context of informatics is the respect of privacy (Alua?, 2016).  

 Scenario Ending and Recommendations

Being a Medical Asisistant during Covid 19 led to the ending of this scenario being that is that technology implementation in health is not HIPPA observant. One of the actions that could be implemented to address privacy concerns is implementing blockchain technology, preventing individual access to medical information through tempering. blockchain technology has the potential to improve efficiency in medical clinics and reduce costs dramatically. It gives us new possibilities, and the industry will see a major upheaval as a result (Prokofieva & Miah, 2019). Blockchain allows for storage of data and as such patient’s information is more secure and much harder for external parties to access unless they have access to the user computers which is only availed upon approval. Blockchain operates with distributed integrity. As a result, the database isn't found in a single location but instead resides on thousands of user computers. There is a doubling of the complete information chain and storage setup in encrypted form for each participant hence attaining compliance under HIPPA. The original data can't be swapped out because the design is entirely encrypted (Prokofieva & Miah, 2019).

Advantages and Disadvantages

While technology in the health industry poses significant risks in terms of privacy and ethical issues, there are still some advantages in implementing technology in healthcare. An illustration is that technology is being applied in multiple fields of medicine such as ophthalmology, gynecology, nursing, and much more but in this case most of all amid the pandemic, Covid-19). One of the main advantages is that health institutions have an easier means of storing data compared to the past, which also eases retrieval of information (Geisler, & Heller, 2012). Furthermore, the communication process between patients and doctors is made much more accessible, improving healthcare quality. Additionally, the amount of medical errors made within the healthcare industry decreases significantly through the implementation of proper healthcare technologies. 

Data collected could serve to analyze the most preferred method of treatment that shall be most beneficial for the patient hence increasing their chances for recovery (Geisler, & Heller, 2012). Additionally, reports have shown that the data collected has been used to lead to the progression of the medical industry through the advancement of practice based on the scientific research conducted from collected data. The same data was being collected from Covid-19 patients in the search for treatment and the rendering of second opinions regarding CT scans and Xrays of patients that were potentially Covid-19 patients (Yamamoto et al. 2021).   Furthermore, within the health industry, the doctor-patient relationship is essential to ensure a patient feels comfortable being treated by the doctor (Geisler, & Heller, 2012). An illustration in the implementation of telepresence within the hospital to assist -19 Covid patients to interact with the staff members at the hospital being that they were isolated thus easing their experience (Yamamoto et al. 2021). Therefore, the connection is made much more accessible and convenient to the patient through technology, thus improving their healthcare, such as telehealth applications for public inquiry regarding Covid-19. 

However, while there are advantages in implementing technology in healthcare, disadvantages exist even in the case of Covid-19 being that the data in question is still medical in nature, such as in the case of privacy of information stored within these technological devices. One would agree that the nature of the information that is stored in the form of digital data is open to unauthorized access, taking the form of cyberattacks. Consequently, the unethicality arises from the humiliation that the patient endures from having their personal medical history accessible to the public without their consent. From an ethical standpoint of rights, one would agree that the right to privacy is an essential component in healthcare, which means that the healthcare industry has the duty to ensure such protection. Therefore, in the absence of a guarantee that the privacy of patient information is protected on technological principle, the health institution's actions are an ethical violation. 

Conclusion and Reflections

In conclusion, the impact of the medical patient's information on the public is a violation of their right to privacy which includes any data regarding their specific Covid-19 medical information; thus, until it is possible to assure patients that their information is secured, technology will always pose a risk in the health industry (Mukherjee, 2021).  Therefore, while there are advantages, particularly in the improved efficiency of healthcare, it is not wise to ignore the severity of the privacy disadvantage. However, one could argue that as technology develops to determine the means of securing data so does the technology on the means of breaching such technology to have unauthorized access. Furthermore, insurance companies are encouraging the use of technology in health for example the rendering of insurance premiums that cover telehealth during the Covid 19- pandemic (Mukherjee, 2021). Nonetheless, some of the risks associated with telehealth is the possibility of leakage of personal medical data to the public. Therefore, in the future, as a medical professional, I shall ensure that I place active measures to ensure that I research more on the best means of managing patient information so that their right to privacy is protected. Furthermore, I shall ensure that I am more involved in determining whether the best cyber security systems are in place and consistently being upgraded so that patient data is very secure.