Healthcare Privacy and Confidentiality Essay

In a health care setting, privacy and confidentiality are an issue of primary concern. In the contemporary world, which is characterized by a competitive workplace, privacy is critical for various reasons. For instance, avoiding the leak of employee confidential information prevents not only workplace harassment, but also ensures productivity. As such, there is the need for managers and supervisors to protect an employee’s private and personal information from access by other workers. Medical information, including details concerning the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, are good examples of confidential information that needs an employer, manager, or supervisor’s protection (Lopatka, 2014). Therefore, the personnel in the Human Resources Department should not have told Sara’s co-workers that she was absent from work because she was undergoing treatment for active tuberculosis.Healthcare Privacy and Confidentiality Essay

The fact that Sara felt isolated because both her employers and her colleagues refused to spend time with her reinforces the assertion that leaking an employee’s confidential information results in adverse effects. Such effects include workplace harassment and a decrease in performance and productivity (Lopatka, 2014). On this note, although Sara has not yet shown reduced performance and productivity, it is expected that her output will diminish with time. Now that another home health aide has begun exhibiting symptoms resembling those that she had before she was diagnosed with active tuberculosis. In brief, employers and other hired personnel such as managers and supervisors should protect employees’ privacy and confidentiality to evade the impacts associated with their breach, which ranges from the worker’s reduced performance and productivity to low-profit realization.Healthcare Privacy and Confidentiality Essay