HIPAA & Confidentially for Health Science students

Introduction

Introduction

Breaking patient confidentiality can get healthcare professional in big trouble. Not only is it unethical to be sharing a patient's personal information, it is also illegal. As we will discover through this WebQuest, not only can the agency you work for be sued for breaking a patient's confidentiality, but you (as the provider) can be personally sued.

As we look deeper into patient confidentiality (and specifically at the HIPAA law) consider the following scenarios and decide if an illegal or unethical act has taken place.

  • A group of doctors goes out to lunch. As they are sitting in the restaurant, they are discussing a patient they were taking care of in the ICU (Martin). One of the doctors states that Martin isn't doing very well and he can't understand why the family won't "pull the plug".
  • Tried (a nurse in the CCU) hears that her friend's dad (Nelson) is being admitted to the medical inpatient unit. Tei uses her access to patient records to see how Nelson is doing so she knows to send flowers to his home or to the hospital.
  • Bryce (a nurse in the ED) sees a friend from his school (Alber) being treated for abdominal pain. During his lunch break, Bryce posts on Facebook that Alber is feeling better and he has kidney stones.
  • Veronica works in the Health Information Management office. One evening Veronica’s mother calls and says "I know Tann’s brought her dad in for a checkup. Did the doctor figure out what caused the rash on his back?" Tanh’s dad lives next door to Veronica’s mother.

Task

Your Assignment

As part of your assignment, you will need to watch videos, read articles, look at web pages, and search the Internet to find information about patient confidentiality and HIPAA. It is important to take your time while you read and watch so you don't miss important information.

After watching, reading, and searching, you will need to complete the Patient Confidentiality Worksheet and submit it as a Google classroom assignment by the given due date.

The three steps to this task are ...

  1. Conduct Research on privacy and HIPAA
  2. Complete the Patient Confidentiality Worksheet
  3. Submit the worksheet to your instructor through Google classroom by the given due date

Details on how to complete each step and some helpful links are listed in the process page of this WebQuest

Process

The Process

There are three parts to completing the task: 1. Conduct Research on Privacy and HIPAA, 2. Complete the Patient Confidentiality Worksheet, 3. Submit the worksheet to your instructor through Google classroom by the given due date.

Conduct Research on Privacy and HIPAA

Articles

Video Clips

Complete Worksheet

Download and complete all questions on the Patient Confidentiality Worksheet. You can get the worksheet by clicking Here.

Submit Worksheet

Submit your completed worksheet as an assignment in Google classroom by the due date to recieve credit for this assignment. The assignment will be graded using the rubric on the evaluation page of this site.

Evaluation

Evaluation

  Excellent (100%) Adequate (50%) Insufficient (0%)

Knowlege 

(10 points)

Questions 1-3 are answered correctly.

Two questions from questions 1-3 are answered correctly.

One (or less) questions are answered correctly from questions 1-3.

Application 1

(40 points)

Scenario 1 questions are answered in detail with supporting facts.

Scenario 1 questions are not answered in detail OR supporting facts are not provided.

Scenario 1 questions are not answered in detail AND supporting facts are not provided.
Application 2 

(40 points)

Scenario 2 questions are answered in detail with supporting facts.

Scenario 2 questions are not answered in detail OR supporting facts are not provided.

Scenario 2 questions are not answered in detail AND supporting facts are not provided..
Writing 

(10 points)

There are no grammar/spelling mistakes

There are 1-4 grammar/spelling mistakes

There are more than 4 grammar/spelling mistakes

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

Through this WebQuest, you have learned more about HIPAA and patient confidentiality. All medical facilities will have privacy policies in place to comply with federal laws. Know these policies so you don't violate patient confidentially and end up in court (or worse). As medical providers, we need to remember that confidentiality is important, it is unethical and illegal to violate patient privacy. It is a good idea to bookmark the resources you used in this WebQuest. They will be valuable as you continue on your journey in the medical profession. Review them often!

End of WebQuest

Credits

Justin Keel. Boise State College

Teacher Page

Teacher Page

Here you will find the lesson plan for the HIPAA and Confidentiality WebQuest. This page was written to provide teachers/instructors with an overview of the purpose, objectives, and learner description associated with this WebQuest.

Purpose

The HIPAA and Confidentiality WebQuest was designed to assist students in identifying the importance and consequences related to patient confidentiality issues in the medical field. By guiding students' research, the students are also developing increased information literacy skills.

Rationale

Patient privacy is a topic that is not always covered in-depth in medical classes due to large amounts of content that is required to be covered and most students (and instructors) find it boring! However, with an increasing amount of medical providers being sued, fined, sent to jail, and/or losing licenses over privacy violations, it is a critical subject for our students to know and understand. 

Learner Description

This WebQuest was created to be used by nursing students to review the importance of patient confidentiality.

Prerequisites

This WebQuest assumes students will be familiar with web browsers, navigating the Internet, and word processing software.

Instructional Objectives

At the completion of this activity the student will be able to:

  • Explain what the main privacy rules are in HIPAA.
  • Identify the 3 main exceptions for the release of protected health information under HIPAA.
  • Identify the penalties for an individual that violates HIPAA.
  • Synthesize knowledge of HIPAA to find solutions to scenarios
  • Describe issues that can occur when medical records are stored electronically

Standard Addressed

The set of standards selected for this WebQuest are the: 

ISTE National Educational Technology Standards

These standards can be downloaded from the ISTE website at http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students.aspx

The specific standard met through this WebQuest is:

3. Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.

Subject Matter Description

This WebQuest follows the model developed by Bernie Dodge and Tom March. It contains the following sections for learners:

  • Introduction: This section provides an overview to help learners to become familiar with the topic.
  • Task: The task to be completed is described in this section. Learners will research topics on patient confidentiality and HIPAA and then complete a worksheet to apply their knowledge.
  • Process: The list of steps to follow are provided to successfully complete the items in the Task.
  • Evaluation: A rubric is provided to allow learners to self-score their projects. This same rubric will be used by the instructor to assign a grade for work completed in this WebQuest.
  • Conclusion: This section is used to prompt the learner to think about what they have learned during this WebQuest. What are the implications for the future?

 

Assessment

Students will complete a worksheet by applying the knowledge that was learned during the research phase of the WebQuest. The worksheet will be scored using the rubric in the evaluation page.