legal and ethical principles for the patient portal

by Dr. Susan Kozey 9 min read

Legal, Practical, and Ethical Considerations for Making ...

33 hours ago We argue that there are potential legal mandates for improving portal accessibility (e.g., the Civil Rights and the Rehabilitation Acts), as well as ethical considerations to prevent the exacerbation of existing health and health care disparities. >> Go To The Portal


The ethical principles of patient autonomy, beneficence and nonmaleficence provide a strong foundation upon which to develop patient portals, yet the digital environment challenges some of these concepts by changing the nature of access.

The ethical principles of patient autonomy, beneficence and nonmaleficence provide a strong foundation upon which to develop patient portals, yet the digital environment challenges some of these concepts by changing the nature of access.

Full Answer

What are the ethical principles of health care?

We argue that there are potential legal mandates for improving portal accessibility (e.g., the Civil Rights and the Rehabilitation Acts), as well as ethical considerations to prevent the exacerbation of existing health and health care disparities.

Are there legal and Ethical Mandates for improving portal accessibility?

Legal, Practical, and Ethical Considerations for Making Online Patient Portals Accessible for All ... We argue that there are potential legal mandates for improving portal accessibility (e.g., the Civil Rights and the Rehabilitation Acts), as well as ethical considerations to prevent the exacerbation of existing health and health care ...

What are a nurse’s legal and ethical obligations to patients?

Jan 29, 2016 · Role of Ethics in Decision Making Regarding Standardizing Patient Portal Context. With the integration of technology into healthcare and the mixed reviews on the impact on the quality of care; the discussion of regulating the context of a patient portal could potentially be a difficult one. Providers and healthcare organizations may have some ...

What is the moral basis of patient confidentiality?

Legal, Practical, and Ethical Considerations for Making Online Patient Portals Accessible for All Largely driven by the financial incentives of the HITECH Act’s Meaningful Use program as part of federal US health care reform, access to portal Web sites has rapidly expanded, allowing many patients to view their medical record in-formation online.

image

What are the legal and ethical considerations for healthcare professionals?

Ethical Issues in HealthcarePatient Privacy and Confidentiality. The protection of private patient information is one of the most important ethical and legal issues in the field of healthcare. ... Transmission of Diseases. ... Relationships. ... End-of-Life Issues.Jan 7, 2016

What does legal and ethical mean in healthcare?

Informed Consent Ethical and legal dilemmas arise when the health care provider and the patient, or the patient's family, have differing opinions on appropriate care. A health care professional may be torn between the ethics of beneficence (doing good) and autonomy (respecting patient's wishes).

How do patient health information portals contribute to patient rights?

Further, portals help providers educate their patients and prepare them for future care encounters. When patients have access to their health data, they are better informed, and have the potential to generate deep and meaningful conversations regarding patient wellness during doctor's appointments.May 13, 2016

What are ethical guidelines in healthcare?

The language of ethics related to healthcare, also commonly called bioethics, is applied across all practice settings, and four basic principles are commonly accepted. These principles include (1) autonomy, (2) beneficence, (3) nonmaleficence, and (4) justice.

What are the 7 principles of healthcare ethics?

This approach – focusing on the application of seven mid-level principles to cases (non-maleficence, beneficence, health maximisation, efficiency, respect for autonomy, justice, proportionality) – is presented in this paper. Easy to use 'tools' applying ethics to public health are presented.Oct 7, 2014

What are legal responsibilities in health care?

Legal responsibilities are based on law and they must be followed. Federal, state and local governments enforce the laws. Healthcare workers must follow any laws that affect healthcare and they must also know and follow state laws that regulate their license or registration.

What should be in a patient portal?

A patient portal is a website for your personal health care. The online tool helps you to keep track of your health care provider visits, test results, billing, prescriptions, and so on. You can also e-mail your provider questions through the portal. Many providers now offer patient portals.Aug 13, 2020

What is the purpose of a patient portal?

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient, 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Using a secure username and password, patients can view health information such as: Recent doctor visits.Sep 29, 2017

How can the patient portal affect patient satisfaction?

Our model shows that patient portal use can influence patient satisfaction through the mediating effects of gratification, health self-awareness, and health perception. ... Therefore, by promoting effective patient portal use and fostering patient perceptions, health care organizations can improve patient satisfaction.

What are the 5 basic ethical principles?

Main principles of ethics, that is beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice, are discussed. Autonomy is the basis for informed consent, truth-telling, and confidentiality.

What are the 4 main ethical principles in nursing?

There are four main principles of ethics: autonomy, beneficence, justice, and non-maleficence. Each patient has the right to make their own decisions based on their own beliefs and values.Aug 30, 2021

What are the 8 ethical principles?

This analysis focuses on whether and how the statements in these eight codes specify core moral norms (Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-Maleficence, and Justice), core behavioral norms (Veracity, Privacy, Confidentiality, and Fidelity), and other norms that are empirically derived from the code statements.

What is the role of a correctional nurse?

In the correctional setting, the patient is at the core of professional nursing practice. The fact that the patient is incarcerated is only a circumstance of his or her situation and does not, and should not, change how the nurse practices or how the nurse views the patient. Correctional nursing allows the nurse to practice the essence of nursing while recognizing that all patients have intrinsic value. Achieving and staying true to professional nursing values while practicing in the correctional setting can create a unique set of ethical, legal and professional issues for the nurse. This article will examine some of the ethical and legal issues correctional nurses must address in their practice.

What is fidelity in nursing?

Fidelity (remaining faithful to one’s commitment) These principles serve as a guide to the nurse in making ethical decisions . The correctional nurse can find support for ethical decisions by referring to the American Nurses Association’s code of ethics.

What is professional practice in nursing?

Finally, professional practice is an area that can create ethical concerns for correctional nurses. Nurses are encouraged to refer to the ANA’s scope and standards of practice for correction nursing and to their state’s nurse practice act in addressing practice issues.

What are the legal implications of nursing?

The legal implications of nursing practice are tied to licensure, state and federal laws, scope of practice and a public expectation that nurses practice at a high professional standard. The nurse’s education, license and nursing standard provide the framework by which nurses are expected to practice.

How do inmates access health care?

Inmates have several ways to access health care, such as by submitting a request slip or form. Another way is through oral communication, for example, by telling a correctional officer of a need to be seen by medical, or mentioning a health concern to the nurse during medication administration.

What is the use of health information technology?

Widespread use of health information technology (IT) could potentially increase patients’ access to their health information and facilitate future goals of advancing patient-centered care. Despite having increased access to their health data, patients do not always understand this information or its implications, ...

How can information technology improve patient care?

There is growing interest in electronic access to health information and the use of digital data for both disease and health-related tracking. Widespread use of health information technology (IT) could potential ly increase patients’ access to their health information and facilitate future goals of advancing patient-centered care.1 For example, health IT can be used to facilitate information exchange with clinicians and instruct patients when to act upon clinical issues, such as out of range physiologic parameters, follow-up of test results, and complications of medication use. 2 Tools such as personal health records, patient portals, and various mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have been developed to help patients engage in their own care. Already, a significant number of patients use health IT; therefore, it is essential that patient-facing health IT be tailored to their needs. In this paper, we discuss two forms of patient-facing health IT tools—patient portals and apps—to highlight how, despite several limitations of each, combining high-yield features of mHealth apps with portals could increase patient engagement and self-management and be more effective than either of them alone. This could potentially improve both patient experience and outcomes related to patient-facing health IT.

Who wrote Patient Portals and Health Apps: Pitfalls, Promises, and What One Might Learn from the

This statement accompanies the article Patient portals and health apps: Pitfalls, promises, and what one might learn from the other authored by Jessica L. Baldwin and co-authored by Hardeep Singh, Dean F. Sittig, Traber Davis Giardina and submitted to Healthcare as an Article Type. Authors collectively affirm that this manuscript represents original work that has not been published and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.We also affirm that all authors listed contributed significantly to the project and manuscript. Furthermore we confirm that none of our authors have disclosures and we declare noconflict of interest.

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals are intended to engage patients by giving them access to medical information ; however, if patients are unable to understand the information or the system is not usable, patients will not take advantage of them. Despite several aforementioned drawbacks, apps have used evolving innovative designs to engage consumers and offer unique features and functions that could be translated to patient portal design. For instance, Apple's ResearchKit's Diabetes app pings the user daily to update disease and symptom-related information. Check-in questions or user-friendly alerts in portals could similarly be explored for engaging more patients their health care. Alerts could ask if the patient understands an abnormal result, direct them to helpful resources, and encourage test result follow-up. Finally, test results in the portal need to be easily understood by laypeople or displayed using simplified medical terms. For example, a portal might display elevated cholesterol as "↑LDL cholesterol," or even just display the number without a flag, whereas a health app may label it as “bad cholesterol.”

What is the HealthKit app?

In June 2014, Apple announced the HealthKit cloud application programming interface (API) and its partnership with Epic (Verona, WI), an electronic health record vendor who also makes MyChart (a popular patient portal), and the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN).

image