Week5 Assignments: Policy Update Proposal

Week 5 Assignments: Policy Update Proposal Student’s Name Affiliation Course Number: Course Name Instructor’s Name Due Date Identification of Areas Requiring Updates The policy delineates the steps the hospital should take to reduce the incidence and severity of patient falls. The first step in conducting the initial falls risk assessment does not mention the need to restrict access to individuals’ private healthcare data as per the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Once the patient enters the hospital, the policy requires that a registered nurse complete the Morse Fall Scale Risk Screening Tool within the electronic medical record during the initial assessment for admission. There is no mention of the need to follow guidelines to ensure patients’ privacy. Another area relates to the lack of guidelines on how to handle protected health information (PHI) when doing additional follow-up assessments of patients’ risk of falls at all times during every shift, when there is a status change, or upon transfer to another care level. Due to the failure to mention how to ensure compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule, there is a significant risk of breaches of PHI when creating, receiving, maintaining, or moving files electronically. Proposed Revisions First, the policy should be revised to include approaches to ensure the registered nurse respects patients’ privacy when completing the Morse Fall Scale Risk Screening Tool within the electronic medical record. Initial fall risk assessment on a patient should mention the need for the nurse to be guided by the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which establishes standards tailored to safeguard PHI that the entity holds (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2025) The policy should incorporate the need to obtain patients’ informed consent by signing the consent form for the utilization, disclosure, or sharing of their data with other professionals or entities, upon entering the health system. Second, communications during additional follow-up assessments, particularly during shifts, when the patient’s status changes, or when transferring the patient to another level of care, should be guided by the HIPAA Security Rule to ensure the hospital implements safeguards to protect electronic PHI integrity, availability, and confidentiality. The HIPAA Security Rule requires that institutions: (a) ensure integrity, confidentiality, and availability of all ePHI they develop, maintain, receive, or move, (b) establish and protect against any foreseeable threats to ePHI integrity and security, and (c) safeguard patient’s data against reasonably anticipated disclosures or uses that are impermissible (Centers for Medicare &a...