Verified Document

Privacy And Cultural Competency Essay

HIPAA Privacy Rule Considerations Dealing with a diverse patient population will impact the right to patient privacy as mandated by the HIPAA Privacy Rule in a couple of distinct ways. Many patients might not necessarily understand their rights to privacy, or their other rights. Such a statement is particularly relevant when dealing with immigration populations. For instance, numerous members of these populations may not speak English very well. Additionally, depending on which ethnicity they are members of, it might be difficult to find a translator or someone that can speak their native language. As such, one of the potential barriers I might come across in a medical setting when dealing with a diverse patient population is simply attempting to communicate to its members the information that they need -- and are entitled to according to the HIPAA Privacy Act. Again, depending on which ethnicity or nationality a particular patient represents, simply communicating successfully with that patient might prove difficult. This fact is compounded by the reality that "lack of access to care" does "exist along racial and ethnic lines" (Department of Health 2).

In this respect, gaining a degree of cultural competency could tremendously help the aforementioned situation....

Firstly, it is not too difficult to expect a culturally competent professional to know some common and key terms in languages other than English. In particular, there is a burgeoning Spanish speaking population in the U.S., which makes the incorporation of a basic understanding of this language valuable to anyone interacting with culturally diverse populations. However, a large part of cultural competency that is apropos to the aforementioned situation relates to merely understanding various cultural signs of significance. Even if members of a particular population can speak English with some degree of proficiency, their understanding of privacy regulations, medical information and payment data might not be sufficient. Those in the medical field need to be able to discern just when patients can and cannot understand them, regardless of whether or not they say they do.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule can certainly impact the care that is administered to a pair of different culture. Even though the rule is actually the same in both instances, there are certain facets of cultures that influence what sort of care is given, and what sort of barriers to proper care will exist. For instance, if there were an affluent person from a Eurocentric background whose family had been in…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Department of Health and Human Services. "HHS action plan to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities." http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/. 2011. Web. http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/files/Plans/HHS/HHS_Plan_complete.pdf

Department of Health and Human Services. "2012 National Healthcare Disparities Report. http://archive.ahrq.gov/. 2013. Web. http://archive.ahrq.gov/research/findings/nhqrdr/nhdr12/2012nhdr.pdf
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Competency Evaluation in Sexual Assault
Words: 4861 Length: 15 Document Type: Term Paper

The only medical issues documented in this report are acute findings that potentially relate to the assault or preexisting medical factors that could influence interpretation of findings. Separate medical documentation by examiners and other involved clinicians follows a standard approach -- address acute complaints, gather pertinent historical data, describe findings, and document treatment and follow-up care; and (2) Ensuring the accuracy and objectivity of medical forensic reports by seeking

Cultural Perspectives on Health Changing
Words: 2175 Length: 7 Document Type: Essay

In the health care practice, there are those aspects of culture that are sensitive and that the health care practitioners need to consider when making decisions related to the practice. Some of these cultural aspects are those that contradict with the principles of modern medicine. Therefore, by the practitioner having a good understanding of these sensitive aspects of culture, he/she will be able to make the appropriate decision for the

Cultural Competence in Nursing: Emerging
Words: 2273 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

" (a Manager's Guide to Cultural Competence Education for Health Care Professionals, nd) Cultural competence is a development process as no individual "becomes culturally competent overnight or with one or two hours of training." (a Manager's Guide to Cultural Competence Education for Health Care Professionals, nd) Cultural competence training is stated to involve "attitude changes and the examining of personal biases and stereotypes as an initial step to acquiring the

Cultural Competence and Human Resource Management
Words: 1317 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Cultural Competence in Organizations Cultural competence is the interaction of different individuals of different cultures, social and economic backgrounds, in business organizations, government agencies, non-profit organizations and human resource departments. It incorporates four essential and fundamental concepts: consciousness of perception on culture, differences attitude regarding culture, information on cultural practices and perception and skills regarding cross-culture. Cultural competence is the interaction of different individuals of different cultures, social and economic backgrounds, in

Cultural Diversity in Workplace With
Words: 4554 Length: 16 Document Type: Term Paper

Thus, more skilled individuals are more likely to possess these. Ensure that the Culturally Diverse Human Resources is Rare Any firm's human resource must be rare, especially if it aims to be the source of sustained competitive advantage. Human skills are normally dispersed in the population, but human resources with high skill levels are rare (Jenson, 1980). In the same manner, the responsibility attached to working in a company or firm

The Importance of Cultural Awareness
Words: 879 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Introduction Police officers interact with the public on a daily basis, requiring cross-cultural competency and communications skills. Whereas lack of awareness of cross-cultural differences may lead to conflicts and misunderstandings, cultural competency can foster harmonious relationships among multiple community stakeholders. Misunderstandings can also lead to inefficiencies in inter-agency communication, potentially complicating cases by unnecessarily diverting a case to child protective services or the courts. For police officers, cross-cultural competencies impact interactions

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now