Healthcare IT News - November 2007 - (Page 12) 12 Healthcare IT News My two cents ■ November 2007 www.HealthcareITNews.com ethics, respect key to privacy – then it i with George clooney. you know who he is – the I’mnot-a doctor-but-I-used-to-play-oneon-tV guy. He was pre-mcDreamy handsome as Dr. Doug ross on ER. then he went on to become a big film star, director and producer. Still handsome. He’s such a public figure, and we (a lot of us) have followed his career as he’s ticked off one film success after another. Perhaps that’s why some members of the staff at Palisades medical center might have felt it was oK to check on George’s medical record. What could it hurt? clooney was treated at the new Jersey hospital after a minor motorcycle accident. twenty-seven staff members have been accused of taking a peek at his records – an unauthorized peek. the hospital’s union chief did not defend the action, but she said the hospital acted too quickly when it suspended the 27 staff members for one month without pay. Some of the people suspended may have been authorized, she said. Well, oK. the hospital needs to sort that out. We expect it’s on the case right now – checking authorizations, procedures and technology. one reason the clooney incident has garnered so much attention here at Healthcare IT News and around the country is that it has put the spotlight on privacy concerns. Healthcare IT News received more letters on this issue in the past month than we have in the past year. Some who wrote letters said the penalty was not severe enough. they would have fired the rule breakers. others took the opportunity to point to how vulnerable our privacy has become. If it happened to clooney, it could happen to any one of us. Perhaps dozens of people would not be interested in our condition. But a friend, neighbor or family member might be – and perhaps could rationalize taking a quick look at a record that is supposed to be accessible to the patient and those T’s been a MonTh abuZZ who need it to provide the patient’s care. “the combination of technology and the right value system can’t single-handedly solve everything, but it does put a hospital on solid footing,” Bernie Monegain, Editor robert Seliger, cofounder and ceo of Sentillion, an access management vendor, told Healthcare IT News managing editor eric Wicklund. “It is very difficult to practice respectful privacy and deliver healthcare these days while using It to do both,” he added. Seliger is right. there are many people today working on this very issue among them are Deborah Peel, mD, a psychiatrist and privacy rights activist, and the group of people who make up the Healthcare Information technology Standards Panel (part of the american Health Information community). the panel just released a set of standards aimed at keeping medical information secure in an electronic environment. If www.HealthcareITNews.com Published in partnership with we are often reminded by cios and it directors around the country that technology can’t fix bad processes. you think it’s simple, take a look at the socalled “constructs.” Peel and the bi-partisan coalition for Patient Privacy are urging congress to build ironclad privacy protections into electronic health systems up front. all of this work and advocacy is laudable, and it must continue. But, as we are often reminded by cIos and It directors across the country, technology can’t fix bad processes. Both the processes and the technology have to be right, in sync – and informed by a healthy dose of ethics, common sense and respect for the spirit as well as the letter of the law. then George clooney – and the rest of us – will have a better shot at privacy. ■ More at healthcareITnews.com e Connect:e MoNeGaiN 1107 71 Pineland Drive, Suite 203 New Gloucester, ME 04260 T (207) 688-6270 F (207) 688-6273 Neil Rouda neil.rouda@medtechpublishing.com MedTech Publishing Company PUBLISHER EDITORIAL Jack Beaudoin, Editorial Director jack.beaudoin@medtechpublishing.com Patty Enrado, Contributing Editor patty.enrado@medtechpublishing.com Diana Manos, Senior Editor diana.manos@medtechpublishing.com Molly Merrill, Editorial Assistant molly.merrill@medtechpublishing.com Bernie Monegain, Editor bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com Richard Pizzi, Associate Editor richard.pizzi@medtechpublishing.com Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor eric.wicklund@medtechpublishing.com Nancy Vitucci, nvitucci@himss.org For advertising contacts, see page 45 or visit http://www.healthcareitnews.com/ page.cms?pageId=3 Karen Diekmann, Production Manager karen.diekmann@medtechpublishing.com Danielle Hartley, Director, Marketing danielle.hartley@medtechpublishing.com EDITOR, HIMSS INSIDER EDITORIAL STAFF ● ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MARKETING READER SERVICES T (978) 671-0449 or cs-hitn@e-circ.net F (978)671-0460 Online: www.myHITN.com Postal mail: PO Box 9369 Lowell, MA 01853 Nicole Carter nicole.carter@medtechpublishing.com SUBSCRIPTION FULFILLMENT MANAGER CIRCULATION MANAGER CUSTOMER SERVICE Peggy Tashjian cs-hitn@e-circ.net REPRINTS Reprint Management Services T (717) 399-1900, ext. 139 HITN@reprintbuyer.com John Glaser, vice president, CIO, Partners HealthCare, Boston Denni McColm, CIO, Citizens Memorial Healthcare, Bolivar, Mo. Jane Olds, COO, Louisiana Health Network, New Orleans Wes Rishel, vice president, Gartner, Inc. William Spooner, senior vice president, CIO, Sharp Healthcare, San Diego Paul Tang, vice president, CMIO, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, California Steven Waldren, director, Center for Health IT, American Academy of Family Physicians EDITORIAL BOARD Clooney letters coRRections Healthcare IT News is published by MedTech Publishing Company, LLC, which is solely responsible for its editorial content. Editors are expected to meet the highest professional standards for accuracy, objectivity, fairness and independence. Errors of fact are corrected as soon as the error is established and corrections are published in the medium in which the error appeared. Inquiries or disputes about the factual accuracy of the record should be directed to the editor. chief is not familiar with HIPaa or state confidentiality laws for medical records, which is ironic that she would not know about regulatory issues in her own industry. State laws have existed long before HIPaa and more stringently for breaches of psychiatric, chemical dependency and aIDS. It was not severe. remember the same thing happened when Bill clinton was in the hospital in new york for a cardiac bypass surgery? no one had a problem with healthcare workers losing their jobs then for cause. So, no one should be concerned now. Basically, if a healthcare worker does not have a need to know to do their job, they are in violation and have to pay the consequences. PParenTly The union Edward McAllister Mark Ramsay coRRections Healthcare IT News inadvertently switched the identification of UPMC Health Plan CIO Edward McAllister and Mark Ramsay, global data analytics lead for IBM Center for Business Optimization. They are correctly identified above. An article in the September issue incorrectly attributed responses from L.A. Care. They should been attributed to Russ Billamoria, L.A. Care’s Senior Director of Medical Management. editoRial independence Healthcare IT News is published in partnership with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). HIMSS members are eligible to receive Healthcare IT News and related publications – both in print and online – as a benefit of membership. With the exception of the HIMSS Insider, which is produced by the staff of HIMSS and appears within the pages of Healthcare IT News every month, HIMSS and its leadership exercise no control over the editorial content of the newspaper and related publications. Neil Rouda VICE PRESIDENTS PRESIDENT Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne Neil Rouda PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENTS aline roberts Director of case management murray calloway county Hospital murray, Kentucky LeTTerS see page 45 Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne 2005 JESSE NEAL AWARD WINNER http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8030 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/page.cms?pageId=3 http://www.myHITN.com
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