The Patient
An 18-year-old male was a high school student, lived in a community of approximately 20,000 people, and was a member of the high school basketball team. He died after the car in which he was a passenger struck a tree in a high-speed crash. The driver and two friends were returning from lunch-break in town. The accident occurred just outside school grounds at 12:48 pm. The driver and the back seat passenger, taken by ambulance to the hospital, were later released with minor injuries. The front seat passenger was pronounced dead at the scene. A reporter from the local newspaper interviewed the schools nurse practitioner, who disclosed the details of the accident, along with some sensitive health information, without authorization by the provider or the deceased’s family. Several weeks later, for educational purposes, this information was included in the Adult Education – Driver Safety Course offered at the town’s Public Library (a cooperative initiative between the high school and adult community). Although in the driver safety class the young man’s name, birthdate, and social security number were not documented anywhere, most people in this modest-sized community were aware that the example case discussed in the course, was in fact not only true, but certain that the case was 100% about this college bound student, who tragically died.
Initial Post
One of your first tasks is to review the federally posted Security Risk Assessment (SRA) on HealthIT.gov. Then, review the patient case described above with the risk assessment in mind. No, you do NOT have to fill out this risk assessment. Simply familiarize yourself with it. If any specific required data points stand out to you, you may refer to them in your discussion board posting.
In an initial post, address the following:
1 If you were the lead advanced practice nurse for the entire regional school district and immediate boss of the high-school advanced practice nurse in question, how would you handle communication and improvement strategies?
2 If the school advanced practice nurse clearly removed all of the HIPAA Safe Harbor identifiers (the 18 identifiers in the provision) when answering the news reporter interview questions, is it possible that the deceased’s personal health information would still be exposed?
3 Considering the educational intention of the cooperative program between the high school and local library, who do you believe is accountable for sharing the private health information of the deceased that is included in the driver’s safety course? Why?
Consider the following to guide your discussion:
• Ethical implications to a deceased fellow student and to his family
• Legal implications
• Good Samaritan approach (no harm intended)
• Emotional student and/or community impact of using a deceased fellow student as a case study in school
• Cognitive learning impact of using a deceased fellow student as a case study in a school/community program.
Your original post must be 275-350 words in length. APA format, with the use of citations (not included in the word count).
Please Note: This discussion is set up so that you must make an initial post before you see any student responses.
Reply Posts
Respond to the posting of two classmates. Professionally challenge, discuss, debate, take a stance, enhance, or offer an opinion. 175-250 words for each response. APA format, with citations.
Due Date and Grading
