A Study on Consent and Authorization in the Disclosure of Patient Health Information in Federal Med…

A STUDY ON CONSENT AND AUTHORIZATION IN THE DISCLOSURE OF PATIENT HEALTH INFORMATION IN FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE, ASABA, DELTA  STATE.
The images of healthcare institutions and healthcare providers have suffered damages, law suits, poor public relations, etc, as a result of several cases of denial of patient’s right to consent and authorization. Thus, this research study is on “The Need for Consent and Authorization in the Disclosure of Patient Health Information; A study of Federal Medical Center Asaba, Delta State”. The objective of this study is to assess the awareness of healthcare providers on the need for consent and authorization in the disclosure of patient health information. Descriptive research design was adopted to randomly select 133 staff from the whole population of the clinical staff of Federal Medical Center Asaba, Delta State. A self- structured questionnaire was distributed to the 133 selected staff of the institution. Findings of this research work were analyzed through the frequency distribution table and the test of hypothesis was carried out using chi-square (x²), Findings from the study revealed that high number of the respondents have the knowledge of consent and authorization in the disclosure of patient health information while few of the respondents do not have the knowledge.