Mary is the director of Health Information Services in a small hospital. 

Question Answered step-by-step Mary is the director of Health Information Services in a small hospital. She has two coders, Sally and Jane, who have been on staff for greater than 10 years, are both highly productive, and consistently demonstrate accuracy of 99% or better on quality audits.  Jane had an emergency room visit, during which it was determined she was human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive.  Sally coded the record and told the other staff members that they should be careful around Jane because of her HIV status.  Jane found out about Sally’s distribution of her HIV status to the department and has decided to pursue legal action against the facility for not appropriately maintaining confidentiality of her information.   -What is the ethical question or concern presented by Sally’s behavior?  -What are the relevant facts?  -In consulting the AHIMA Code of Ethics, what specific Ethical Principles and Guidelines of the AHIMA Code of Ethics have been violated (list all that apply, and for each, outline how it has been violated)?  -Based on what you said in Question #3, which of the AHIMA values (quality, integrity, respect, and leadership) has been violated (list all that apply, and for each, outline how it has been violated)?  -Who are the stakeholders (persons and/or groups affected by the actions outlined)? Is there potential harm to the HIM department as a result of the actions (and explain why, or why not)? Is there potential harm to the AHIMA as a result of the actions (and explain why, or why not)?  -What are the options with respect to how Mary should proceed with Sally (note that doing nothing is always one of the possible options)? For each of the options that you list, note the possible pros and cons that would result from taking that option.  -Based on your answers for Question #6, what option would you recommend?  -What is the justification for taking that option, as opposed to the others?  -Are there any specific steps the department could or should take to keep (or minimize) this violation from happening in the future? Explain your answer. Health Science Science Nursing HIM 320 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)