Final answer:
In reviewing adherence to HIPAA guidelines, the action of a nurse reviewing critical concerns with the healthcare team while maintaining confidentiality is most closely aligned with HIPAA standards. Discussing care at the nurse's station, sharing information with unlicensed personnel, triaging in public, and faxing to unverified callers can all potentially violate HIPAA.
Step-by-step explanation:
HIPAA Guidelines in Nursing
When evaluating staff adherence to HIPAA guidelines, it's important to identify actions that protect patient privacy and ensure the confidentiality of health records. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets strict standards for the handling of health information.
According to HIPAA, healthcare providers must maintain the confidentiality of patient records. Among the actions listed, the most appropriate and adherent to HIPAA is when a nurse reviews critical concerns aloud with the healthcare team while maintaining confidentiality and not disclosing patient information to unauthorized individuals.
Discussing patient care with a family member in a public area such as the nurse's station can lead to unintentional disclosure of protected health information (PHI). Sharing a patient's test results with unlicensed personnel who do not need that information for treatment violates the patient's privacy rights. Triaging a patient in a public waiting room may result in unauthorized disclosure of personal health information.
Faxing information to an unverified insurance representative can also lead to a breach of confidentiality if proper verification processes are not followed. Therefore, a nurse practicing proper HIPAA adherence would validate the identity of any callers before sharing patient information and conduct sensitive discussions in private settings, ensuring that only individuals involved in the patient's care have access to PHI.
Clinical settings sometimes involve ethical considerations like balancing treatment costs, patient quality of life, and privacy risks. For example, the decision to contact a patient's sexual partners in the event of an infectious disease needs careful consideration of the patient's privacy rights against the partners' right to know for health reasons.