Healthcare providers are moving to a system of electronic health records where an individual’s entire medical history, diagnoses, treatments, medications and other health information are maintained in a digital form.
In order to provide better and more timely health care to individuals, should physicians and other healthcare providers be able to freely access and share this information with each other without a patient’s consent?
No, I do not think that healthcare providers should be able to share this information without a patient's consent, because of the privacy implications that it could invoke if it gets out of hand. If you are diagnosed with a disease, and then health insurance that you subscribe to immediately says that they will not cover treatment for you, then I think people will want to go to the doctor less and less, because they already know that their treatment may not cover it, and create more distrust with the healthcare system in general.
ReplyDeleteWith the healthcare system being mainly electronic, with charts and forms being maintained digitally, I don't believe that other healthcare providers be able to freely access and share this information with each other without a patient’s consent. To me this is a bit confusing with how the question of the week is worded. To me it seems like by allowing this it makes anyone who works in healthcare have access to your files. This isn't true, and if it were true, it would create a lot of problems with trust within the system. For an example, my personal health records could be accessed by anyone and could therefore be sold.
ReplyDeleteNo, I do not believe this is a sound policy unless there is a medical emergency. Someone's medical data is arguably the most personal information someone can access about the person. Therefore, it should be highly protected. I understand that freely sharing this information with other physicians may allow for an easier and more efficient medical visit, but this positive is not enough to outweigh the privacy concerns regarding the medical data. The only time I could agree with this is if a patient has not given consent for their medical records to be accessed and they are unconscious or otherwise cannot give consent, and their life is in danger. In that case, a medical professional should be able to access the person's medical records in order to save their life.
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