Legal Responsibilities of Nursing Practitioners for Protecting Personal Information in Japan Compared to the United States of America

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Along with great changes in the Japanese social structure, the medical care system has been reformed over the past several years. In 2006, the Medical Act reversed the patient oriented, efficiency system and patient safety guidelines. The regional alliances concerning medical care was developed to provide high quality, specialized medical treatment for patients under the care of healthcare facilities, physicians, public health nurses, care managers, and visiting nurse stations after discharge from a Japanese hospital.Nurses have been coordinated for the alliance, so they must obtain patient consent to insure privacy of medical information. However, it is not clear when, what, and how the nursing staff can obtain this medical information based on the consent. To address these concerns, we performed case study analyses to identify what personal information should be protected.On the other hand, it was indicated that nurses have been obtaining personal information and describing medical records based on the privacy policy of each medical facility in the USA.In order to protect patient privacy, Japanese medical facilities have to establish policies based on the Protecting Personal Information Act and the guidelines stipulated by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Then nurses who work at the medical facility should routinely comply with these guidelines.