Reference no: EM133370904

Case Study: Gretchen McMasters, RHIA, is the HIM director at Maple Heights Memorial hospital. Gretchen has a meeting today with Cynthia Robinson, CCS, the lead coder. Cynthia is a very good coder and has the lead position by virtue of her years of experience. Gretchen's meeting with Cynthia today revolves around the findings of an internal investigation, which showed that Cynthia inappropriately accessed her neighbors' patient records. She had done this on multiple occasions. Cynthia had no rebuttal, as she had no reason beyond curiosity for looking at the records. Gretchen fires Cynthia for her breach of privacy. She tells her to clear out her desk and leave the hospital now. Gretchen plans to hold a staff meeting tomorrow to address privacy breaches.

Questions:

• In the wake of this change, recommend how Gretchen should handle tomorrow's meeting. Propose aspects of privacy training that should be reviewed with the staff.
• Refer to the previous scenario and assess Gretchen's handling of the lead coder's termination with a focus on how that interaction could have been handled in a more appropriate manner. Take into consideration aspects of risk management in your response.
• Evaluate the ethical responsibility that Gretchen has in this situation.