Ethics in healthcare... what a dozy that is. The biggest ethical violation in healthcare is HIPAA. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA is a federal law that required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patients consent or knowledge.
I am going to tell everyone a story and basically tell on myself here. I have had a HIPAA violation... I entered my own chart. I know you are thinking what? How is this a HIPAA violation. Well at work a couple years back I went to the ER for irregular heart rhythmus. When I came back to the floor after being cleared, I decided I wanted to see what my labs were and what the doctors notes were. Unfortunately, going through a chart, even yours is an ethical violation. This is the reason when you go to a healthcare facility that usually they have you create a username and password for your MyChart that gets uploaded from medical records. I was impatient. It cost me in the end, I was suspended for a day without pay and after signed a release of information form saying that it was okay for myself to enter into my chart from our hospital computer system. In healthcare we talk all the time about ethics ad violations whether it be HIPAA or not but even after working at a hospital for many years I did not realize that my own chart could give me a strike on my record here at the hospital.
Ethics are a thin line in the healthcare world and it is hard to see the clear picture until you may be too far over the edge. In 2019 it was averaged that there were 418 HIPAA violations in that year. With willful neglect of HIPAA and an employee with no regards of fixing their actions the first violation is a penalty of $50,000 and up to a maximum of $1.5 million for repeated cases.
Moral of the story if you work in healthcare... absolutely under no circumstances should you look in yours or anyone else's chart in fear of potential HIPAA violations.
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