4 Answers

   Mainly because of HIPPA (Health Insurance Accounting and Portability Act) laws, which are designed to protecgt the medical records information of all patients.   Because of HIPPA, hospital computer systems are accessed by employees via passwords, and unless an employee is entering or legitimately looking up information on a patient, that employee is not allowed to snoop through that patient's records on a whim.  The computer administrators are able to trace computer "footprints" to determine if records have been accessed for other than a valid reason, and an employee caught doing this will be terminated.  For example, a supervisor at my hospital was admitted to that facility as a patient, and some employees got together and decided to send her a get-well card.  They looked up her address in the computer, and at least one of those employees got fired.

There is a lot of personal and confidential information that needs to be kept secure.  Seriously, would you want your health and other personal info available for every Tom, Dick, and Harry to access?????????

To maintain accuracy, integrity and confidentiality

Explain why it is important to have secure systems for recording and storing information in a social care

setting.