HIPAA Scenarios

Consider the following scenario:

As an employee of the hospital one day you noticed two nurses laughing as they were reading something off of a computer screen. You inquired as to what they were laughing at and they proceeded to show you what they were reading. The nurses had looked up information on a rather unique incident of a patient who entered the emergency room a couple of weeks ago. They were discussing it and one of the nurses was in the process of printing out this information to share with another one of her friends that worked in the hospital.

As a group, arrive at answers which you can justify for each of the following questions:

What would you do if you were faced with this situation?

What are some of potential issues that can arise now that patient information is stored electronically and can be accessed quickly and easily by a number of individuals?

What are some ways in which a patient's confidentiality can be better guarded with the use of technology?

Do you think the electronic availability to medical records is responsible for the government mandated Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act (HIPPA)? Explain.