According to USF Health, four of many major ethical issues with electronic information storage for individuals include protection of privacy, security breaches, system implementation, and inaccuracy of data collection and display (usfhealthonline.com). Protection of Privacy and confidentiality is very important in the world of information security and the ethical issue with this is if an organization is upholding their agreement to an individual with keeping their information private and confidential. The healthcare field is a perfect example of where all the ethical issues come into play. When a patient goes to the doctor or a healthcare facility, they are trusting that the nurses and staff related to their care are protecting their personal health information and not sharing it around the facility or with people who do not have authorization. Data inaccuracies is another dilemma when it comes to protecting and storing data. When a nurse or doctor is taking a patient’s personal information, they should always communicate back to the patient what they have documented to further ensure the data they have is correct. In addition to checking with the patient, when the information is put into the system, the staff member who put it in should be paying attention to what they are typing in to ensure what they have input is correct. I have worked in the healthcare field for many years and have seen countless times where there was incorrect information that has been put into a patient’s chart due to someone not paying attention. Patient’s have been logged as the wrong gender, wrong addresses, and there can even be mix ups of patient’s charts. These are things that are easily avoided if the proper attention is taken in the moment to ensure everything is being handled correctly. Sometimes the biggest issue with security and privacy is simple human error. Another issue that arises with electronic storing of information is how the system is implemented. If there is a system in place on how to handle securing and inputting personal information, it must be distributed throughout the entire organization. If a healthcare facility doesn’t inform everyone on how things are implemented or provide enough training on how to implement the new system, then there will be a hole in communication and understanding within the organization. There will also be a bigger chance that patient info may not be entered correctly or handle correctly while being put into the system simply because the implementation wasn’t handled appropriately. Even if these previous three issue can be handled correctly and efficiently, one issue that will always arise is a breach in security. Even if a company has the most expensive security system on the planet, there is some group or someone with enough time and resources that could potentially get into the system. The goal is to make sure there is a plan in place that if and when someone can get through any security in place, data can be isolated and protected or recovered if necessary. If there isn’t enough security in place or the incident response plan is well thought out, there can be huge consequences within an organization. If someone breaches a healthcare facility, they potentially have access to a variety of personal information on patients. If there is a sufficient response plan in place, the attacker may not get very far into the system or may be isolated within the system to limit the amount of information that is compromised.

      

   Usfhealthonline.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 04, 2021, from https://www.usfhealthonline.com/resources/healthcare/legal-and-ethical-issues-in-health-informatics/