Smart Phone Use in Healthcare Good the Bad and the Ugly

Smart Phone Use in Healthcare Good the Bad and the Ugly

Technological advances in healthcare have enhanced the overall quality and efficiency of care processes. With the emergence of smartphones, healthcare communication processes and clinical decision-making have greatly improved. Smartphones can package health information and present it to providers when needed. Various applications in these devices form valuable tools for providers and have been utilized in diagnostics, assessment, and clinical decision-making.

In the clinical case presented, the best course of action is to follow the orders displayed on the nurse’s phone. The efficiency and effectiveness of care provision accorded by devices such as smartphones are evident in such situations where accessibility is difficult. As in the case above, the provider can provide instructions to the caregivers remotely thereby saving time that would otherwise be incurred. The time-lapse between medical orders and care provisions has been implicated in patients’ health deterioration and mortality (Davies et al., 2019). This was adequately solved by smartphone communication between the provider and the other caregivers.

However, whereas smartphones may enhance the efficiency of care provision in some instances, they sometimes present ethical dilemmas. In the case presented, the ethical dilemma evident is whether the caregiver adopts the information transmitted to him by a personal smartphone or not as well as the appropriateness of transmitting private health information via a personal phone. The ethical principle at stake, in this case, is the confidentiality of the patient’s information. This was breached upon the transmission of the patient’s data via a personal phone. As prescribed by the HIPAA, patient health information should be secured and only granted access to subjects provided by the act (Cohen & Mello, 2018). Transmitting such information may be in disharmony with the provisions under this act since unauthorized persons might gain access to these personal devices.

The best response to this situation is first to follow the instruction provided by the smartphone and then later address the non-ethicality of the case. It is the ethical responsibility of caregivers to care for the patient and ensure no harm befalls them in their presence. Failing to follow these instructions may result in a patient’s death. The benefits of saving the life of the patient override the ethicality of patient information sharing.

The situation in the case study depicted a scene that brought a conflict in clinical decision-making. The ethical dilemma presented involved technology utility in healthcare and the ethical principle of the healthcare provision process. Healthcare providers should provide care to those who need it. This may sometimes be at the expense of patient confidentiality, as seen in the case study above.

References

Cohen, I., & Mello, M. (2018). HIPAA and Protecting Health Information in the 21st Century. JAMA, 320(3), 231. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.5630

Davies, C., Lyons, C., & Whyte, R. (2019). Optimizing nursing time in a daycare unit: Quality improvement using Lean Six Sigma methodology. International Journal For Quality In Health Care. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/

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Directions:
You are working the night shift in the Intensive Care Unit. Your patient starts deteriorating, and the primary provider is not calling you back. The charge nurse offers to contact her. A few minutes later, the charge nurse shows you a text from her phone with orders for the client, supposedly from the provider.

What would you do in that situation? Give an example of an ethical dilemma involving confidentiality and the use of technology. How would you respond to the situation?