Patient confidentiality cannot be ensured unless standards are applied to all who may have access to their health information. Legislation should cover all types of individually identifiable health information, including sensitive issues such as substance abuse, mental health, and genetic information. Strike an appropriate balance between patient confidentiality and the need to share clinical information among the many physicians, hospitals and other caregivers involved in patient care. Care is increasingly provided by groups and systems of providers as opposed to individual providers. These new systems create opportunities for real improvements, but they rely heavily on a free flow of information among providers.
Patient confidentiality is of the utmost importance.
But in order to ensure that care can be coordinated and the patient s experience is as seamless as possible, information must be accessible to all providers who treat the patient. Recognize that a hierarchy of need exists among users of health information. Access to individually identifiable information is essential for patient care. Such access may also be necessary for provider and health care system efforts to measure and improve the quality of care. All internal and external uses of patient information must be evaluated as to whether the use of individually identifiable information is justified.