Relias Technology and Informatics 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which federal law primarily governs the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI) in electronic health records?
- HITECH Act
- HIPAA (Correct answer)
- MACRA
- ACA
Correct answer: HIPAA
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is the primary federal law establishing privacy and security standards for PHI, including electronic records.
Question 2: What does the acronym EHR stand for in healthcare informatics?
- Electronic Health Record (Correct answer)
- Enhanced Health Repository
- Electronic Health Registry
- Encoded Health Record
Correct answer: Electronic Health Record
EHR stands for Electronic Health Record, a digital version of a patient's paper chart that is real-time, patient-centered, and available to authorized users.
Question 3: A nurse receives a pop-up alert in the EHR warning of a potential drug-drug interaction. This type of decision support tool is known as a:
- Hard stop
- Clinical decision support (CDS) alert (Correct answer)
- Medication reconciliation flag
- Order entry prompt
Correct answer: Clinical decision support (CDS) alert
Clinical decision support (CDS) alerts are automated notifications within EHR systems that warn clinicians of potential safety issues such as drug interactions.
Question 4: Which of the following best describes interoperability in healthcare information technology?
- The ability of different IT systems to exchange and use data seamlessly (Correct answer)
- The encryption of patient data during transmission
- The process of converting paper records to digital format
- The backup of EHR data to offsite servers
Correct answer: The ability of different IT systems to exchange and use data seamlessly
Interoperability refers to the ability of different health IT systems and software to communicate, exchange data, and use the exchanged data effectively.
Question 5: When a staff member accesses a patient's EHR without a legitimate clinical reason, this is called:
- Unintentional disclosure
- Snooping (Correct answer)
- Incidental breach
- Data mining
Correct answer: Snooping
Snooping is the unauthorized access to patient records out of curiosity or for non-clinical reasons, which is a HIPAA violation and grounds for disciplinary action.
Question 6: The minimum necessary standard under HIPAA requires that healthcare workers:
- Encrypt all PHI before sharing
- Access only the PHI needed to perform their job function (Correct answer)
- Obtain patient consent before viewing any records
- Shred all paper records immediately after digitizing
Correct answer: Access only the PHI needed to perform their job function
The minimum necessary standard requires that access to PHI be limited to only what is needed to accomplish the intended purpose of the use or disclosure.
Question 7: Which type of authentication requires a username/password plus a one-time code sent to a mobile device?
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) (Correct answer)
- Biometric authentication
- Role-based access control
Correct answer: Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) requires two or more verification factors, such as a password combined with a code sent to a registered device, to increase security.
Relias Technology and Informatics 1
Which federal law primarily governs the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI) in electronic health records?