In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Por

In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act(HIPPA), stipulating that federal legislators should pass the privacy measure by August 1999 (Trossman, 2003). They failed to do so, and the law required that the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services create privacy regulations, which were finally published in December, 2000, and were modified by the Bush Administration in August 2002. HIPPA set extensive Standards for Privacy of Identifiable Health Information to help guard the confidentiality of patient medical records (Stevens, 2004). As yet, the rules do not require specific technology or specific vendor solutions which would address problems in protecting individually identifiable patient information. This leaves individual healthcare institutions responsible for evaluating and justifying appropriate solutions for themselves.

However, many healthcare workers complain that the regulations are too complicated and are subject to interpretation (Trossman, 2003). A speaker at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) a speaker pronounced that HIPPA was "the most confusing and anxiety-provoking nightmare to affect radiology in the United States in the past 100 years" (Harvey, 2004). PACS and radiology information systems (RIS) vendors have engaged in proactive planning. It is proposed that customers meet with vendors to identify needs and strategies to ensure patient confidentiality and security, collaborating

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to them. Radiology information in the Washington County Health System is also accessed by chiropractors, physical therapists, reviewers of disability services, JCAHO, the Food and Drug Administration, the American College of Radiology, two colleges with which the health system has connections, interpreter services, ambulance companies, medical researchers, nurses, ambulatory surgery centers, employer-sponsored infirmaries and clinics, home health agencies, other hospitals, other radiology centers, law enforcement, skilled nursing facilities, attorneys, radiation protection surveyors and consultants. This demonstrates the enormity of the problem of patient confidentiality in a radiology department. The Washington County Health System is taking a number of measures to try and address all these issues (AIS Compliance/HIPPA, 2004). These include giving patients a notice of privacy practices, creating employee awareness, limiting employee access to computerized information, requiring annual pledges by employees to protect patient privacy, training volunteers to protect patient privacy, and setting conditions for all other parties accessing patient information. The Princess Margaret Hospital in Windsor, England, invested in th

Category: Government - I