Acts and Policies in Healthcare Information Technology

Acts and Policies in Healthcare Information Technology
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Acts and Policies in Healthcare Information Technology
Legislative one: – The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The ARRA federal legislation influenced the establishment of a committee known as the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC). The formed panel advises Office of National Coordinator for health on matters such as certification criteria and issues surrounding electronic health record systems (Ciampa & Revels, 2012). Also, the advisory committee avails recommendations such as specific implementation strategies, policies or standards relating to a given national or local health infrastructures.
Sources: – The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also referred to as The Recovery Act was enacted by United States Congress and signed by President Barack Obama.
The legislation has caused changes to Health Information Technology (HIT), as the body formed under the act contain qualified health care providers who impact great influence in organizations. The community advocate clinical operations of offering quality standards on issues regarding public health and much attention get paid to patient electronic data transfer. For instance, patient health information is being collected for primary use to provide direct healthcare services. Then, health organizations use the shared research to support diseases prevention and control, promoting a healthy living population (Thorpe, Gray & Cartwright-Smith, 2016).

The federal law has enabled HITAC community to lay basis of recording, storing and use the electronic health information by playing a vital role in ensuring standardized expertise. Since the law supports the sharing of information, health departments are embracing the use of HIT to improve systems that track population health trends. In this way, surveillance and outbreak response get communicated among essential public health functions (Pinsonneault, Addas, Qian, Dakshinamoorthy & Tamblyn, 2017). The transition from paper to electronic data record has revolutionized health systems leading to increased efficiency, capacity and roles in health departments. Some of the health communities formed under Federal legislation such as HITAC has been the driving forces in HIT’s implementations.
Legislative two: – Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The legislation was approved in the year 2009 with a purpose of adopting an essential use of electronic health information (Gold & M Claughlin, 2016). HITECH Act widened the scope of privacy and security matters covered by another federal law referred to as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). One of the primary priority for healthcare providers, professionals or the government is to facilitate privacy and security of patient’s health data (Liss, 2017). Therefore, federal legislation requires the stakeholders in health organizations to emulate policies and safety procedures to protect information.
Sources: – HITECH legislation was established as a section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 (ARRA), signed by President Barak Obama.
The enacted legislation caused a change in health information technology by requiring limits in the manner in which patient’s information get shared with other individuals. The security law set the rules for how health data ought to be kept secure with technical, administrative or physical safeguards. The ease with which data is maintained electronically raise the need to enhance privacies and security of sensitive electronic health information (Goldstein, 2014). Thus, federal laws only allow authorized individuals to access their health information while permitting specific secondary uses like the government effort during the public health purposes. The legislation permits healthcare givers to disclose protected health information to other organizations without consulting the patients only during emergencies such as outbreak of communicable diseases.
HIT Policy Statement
Central Health Care organization recognize the practice of Protected Health Information (PHIs) programs as a repository of many contributors such as family, guardians, patient or professionals. Healthcare providers are required to strictly observe the manner in which critical information is recorded, stored and disseminated using the appropriate, relevant authorized techniques. During information sharing, professionals must be actively incorporated or consulted to confirm the right and secure approach to health data transfer. Correct maintenance of patient’s health information among multiple repositories should be adhered to facilitate a compliance of institution with Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.
Reason for Drafting the Policy in This Manner
The statement is written in this form to reach the intended audience with a clear and easily readable policy that point out the expectations of the stakeholders. Users are likely to understand simple written messages and hence are more likely to follow and incorporate instructions into their daily work. The policymakers are not included in the statement, and this is because the focus is on message targeting the desired audience. The policy statement does not, however, include specific individuals that need get consulted within the department during information transfer or sharing. But on the contrary, nurses or doctors are encouraged to work as a team and make the consultation to avoid leaking information to unauthorized individuals. The primary purpose of the policy is to advocate the existence of safety and privacy issues when handling health record as addressed by the federal acts. Thus, an attempt to disclose organization information without engaging senior professionals become a violation of rules.
With the new policy, I would hope to accomplish an improved consistency within the organization. An environment where procedures get followed, the practice of work becomes a consistent process ensuring that activities get done in the same way following all the steps. For instance, keeping the record of data sharing within the health organization would enable the supervisors to monitor and trace individuals who had access to specific information. Also, the policy will solidify the foundation of health organization, since if right procedures get followed, there will be no violation of law such as federal acts.

References
Ciampa, M. & Revels, M. (2012). Introduction to Healthcare Information Technology. Course Technology, Cengage Learning, pp.1-317.
Gold, M., & M Claughlin, C. (2016). Assessing Hitech Implementation and Lessons: 5 Years Later. Milbank Quarterly, 94(3), 654-687. Doi:10.1111/1468-0009.12214
Goldstein, M. M. (2014). Health Information Privacy and Health Information Technology in the US Correctional Setting. American Journal of Public Health, 104(5), 803-809.
Liss, B. (2017). HIPAA and Mobile Health: Where’s the App for That?. Computer & Internet Lawyer, 34(9), 9-12.
Pinsonneault, A., Addas, S., Qian, C., Dakshinamoorthy, V., & Tamblyn, R. (2017). Integrated Health Information Technology and the Quality of Patient Care: A Natural Experiment. Journal of Management Information Systems, 34(2), 457-486. doi:10.1080/07421222.2017.1334477
Thorpe, J. H., Gray, E. A., & Cartwright-Smith, L. (2016). Show Us the Data: The Critical Role Health Information Plays in Health System Transformation. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 44(4), 592-597. doi:10.1177/1073110516684800