Featherfall Medical Center suffers the consequences of violating health regulations and laws regarding technology and its use. The existing system which is still in use at the company was built in the past two decades and the operators have already resigned or retired (Page & Fields, 2011). The problem was as a result of the center’s failure to comply with the set laws and regulations. The situation has led to the ramification concerning the organization’s finances, daily operations, and security which this paper elaborates.
Regarding finances, the cost of not adhering to the technological laws and regulations is ultimately expensive and exposes an institution to more risks than rewards. The money that an institution incurs due to lack of compliance with the rules can be huge if not promptly addressed. For instance, in November 2010, the state of California charged a nursing home and six hospitals a fine of $792,000 for failure to safeguard their patient information systems from unauthorized access (Page & Fields, 2011). Moreover, inability to give patients their medical records due to an outdated system’s failure may lead to a repercussion of up to $4.3 million penalty as was done to the Maryland-based Cignet Health in September 2009 (Page & Fields, 2011).
To settle the allegations of violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the fine may accrue to up to $1 million, majorly in the United States (Page & Fields, 2011). The above illustrations show how costly and expensive it is to fail to adhere to regulations governing technology use within a health center. It would be effective, efficient, and cash-saving to ensure that hospital health systems like Master Patient Index (MPI) or Admission Discharge Transfer (ADT) technologies are regularly updated and have sufficient operators and programmers.
Non-compliant with technology laws and regulations also has drastic consequences to the hospital’s daily operations if not quickly addressed. The current employees at Featherfall Health Center do not understand the outdated system that is presently in the hospital (Hall & Bobinski, 2014). Consequently, there is a lot of delay in the daily operations and communication between departments at the center. Technology has a great role in collaboration between clinical and administrative staff. However, due to the issue in the available system, there are operational issues that ultimately cause ethical problems emanating from issues of keeping records as Hall & Bobinski (2014) record in their article.
Failure to adhere to the regulations also affects the daily operations since the management will take a lot of time to train and retrain employees regularly. Failure to train employees on how to handle health-related systems such as the ADT and MPI systems makes the company liable for health technological laws violations and may be penalized (Hall & Bobinski, 2014). A breach of a health information technology laws and regulations can tamper with data input, manipulation, sharing, and output, ultimately leading to slow hourly, daily, monthly, or annual operations as well as delayed or no reports (Hall & Bobinski, 2014). For example, the novices at the Featherfall Medical Center do not know how to use the outdated system available for use at the centers. The available technology is not dependable and was abandoned because its operations were cumbersome, both to manage and update to achieve the organization’s needs. The ultimate ramifications include the issues of governance, ethics, and compliance as were previously stated.
The last consequence of not adhering to technological laws and regulations is based on security. The outdated systems expose the system to security threats, and the information that is supposed to be confidential is likely to leak to wrong hands. According to Hofman & Rose (2014), HIPAA and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) contain a lot of rules and regulation for safety. Compliance makes sure that the organizations are regularly aware of when to update the systems. Otherwise, when the technology systems do not comply with the HIPAA or HITECH, it becomes an easy target and can result in a whole bunch of problems (Hofman & Rose, 2014). Security threats include giving hackers or dishonest employee to steal finances or information from the organization.
The health laws regarding technology should have the capacity to protect the patients’ information. Patients have their privacy rights, and absence of updated technology would mean that they safety is not assured (Hofman & Rose, 2014). The protected health information (PHI) laws require that the hospitals adhere to the regulations that ensure patients details remain secure in an electronic health record system and should be transferred and shared through the same technology (Hofman & Rose, 2014). The office of civil rights (OCR) can levy a penalty that amounts to $3 million on an organization in the event it is not using protected health information.
In conclusion, the Featherfall Medical Center must promptly upgrade its technology to match the description as per the legal requirements in the health department. Failure or delay in carrying out the elaborated processes would continue to make the center to suffer in its operations, finances, and security. The company, therefore, requires a quick and efficient action to resolve the issues.
- Hall, M. A., & Bobinski, M. A. (2014). Health care law and ethics. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
- Hofman, J., & Rose, A. D. (2014). Laws and Regulations Governing the Disclosure of Health Information (2014 update). Journal of AHIMA.
- Page, L. & Fields, R. (March, 2011). Legal Issues for Hospitals and Health Systems. Retrieved from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/13-legal-issues-for-hospitals-and-health-systems.html