Gretchen McMasters, RHIA

Gretchen McMasters, RHIA

Gretchen McMasters, RHIA is the HIM director at MapleHeights 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 that showed that Cynthia inappropriately accessed her neighbor’s 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. Gretch fires Cynthia for a 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.

Based on the scenario, respond to the questions below.

• 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