What is Integrity?

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. It is important characteristic to have for anything an individual does, any job an individual applies for, and just anything in general. It is a concept that includes consistency in actions, expectations, measures, methods, outcomes, principles and values. Medical providers, specifically, are asked to do what is right while using professional judgement. Say there is a patient who is roomed by a medical assistant and the assistant tells the patient the physician will be right with them, then gets busy with other things, leaving the patient unattended, worried, and wondering when the physician will come. Now add integrity into the scenario, and what would happen now is the medical assistant checks in with the patient letting them know that the physician is running a little behind and will be there as quick as he can. Integrity is so important to the workforce and when hiring people that Warren Buffet said that hiring people with integrity is the top priority when selecting a candidate. Integrity in HIPAA by definition is concerned with data or information. Integrity means the data or information is an exact copy of the original document and has not been altered or destroyed in any manner. There have been many incidents in healthcare that have occured due to a lack of integrity. Its important in the workforce because traits like integrity foster a positive workplace. Organizations that are based around integrity perform better. There was a scenario that happened one time with a Doctor named Dr. Porter. He had realized he had made a mistake on his patients prescription. He wrote a prescription for cloxacillin, handed it to the patient, and carried on. When he was reviewing the charts later on, he realized the patient had a penicillin allergy. Now he couldve just left the problem alone but his integrity showed. He went out of his way to ask around to see where the lady went. He eventually found her and was apologetic and switched antibiotics to one that was without penicillin.She was very thankful and pleased with his honesty and that he admitted to his wrong-doing. A physician's integrity forms a foundation for the patients trust and fosters healthy therapeutic relationships that promote and regulate healing. Integrity forms the basic social contract between medical field workers and society, which eventually grants professionals the privilege of self-regulation.Integrity goes a long way in any workplace and is needed for a workforce to run properly and succeed better.

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