You are the director of health information services in a major medical center that maintains both a psychiatric unit and a substance abuse unit in addition to general medical and surgical units. Your facility plans to join a computer network with fifteen hospitals throughout the state, which will allow online access to laboratory data, regardless of which facility performed the lab work. None of the other fifteen facilities offer psychiatric or substance abuse treatment. Required:
Identify and discuss the confidentiality issues present with such a network in the light of the statutory, regulatory, and accrediting requirements governing patients treated in these units.

See the explanation below.

Explanation:

The following are some of the confidentiality concerns that may develop as a result of establishing a network connecting the databases of 16 hospitals:

1. The regulation mandates that individuals have the option of opting out of the facility directory or requesting that their health information not be utilized for any other purpose.

2. If a network is constructed, the restriction will be broken since frequent facility reporting would be easily accessible in other facilities, and preserving the information left will be difficult to manage if patients refuse to supply details.

3. Because data would be open and available to a bigger audience, the minimum criterion will be hard to sustain.

4. Establishing a network hospital will violate the 1974 Privacy Act, which places restrictions on the transmission of personal information to third parties.

5. Establishes use and disclosure criteria that set a baseline for keeping the amount of data used or disclosed to the "bare minimum" required to achieve the intended aim.

6. Patents tested, diagnosed, or treated for alcohol and drug misuse, sexually transmitted infections, or mental health disorders may be subject to additional privacy obligations.

7. Creating a network and sharing information with hospitals that do not have such treatment options entails disclosing highly personal information to those who are unaware of some of the most vulnerable patients.

8. Patients who are being treated for such an illness are afforded a high level of seclusion so that their social lives are not disrupted.

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