Confidentiality In Healthcare

Confidentiality is a concept of vast importance for professionals in the medical field. It is a professional obligation in this field and is considered to be an ethical concept that falls in line with integrity, compassion, veracity, charity, and fidelity as explained in both the International Council of Nurses Code for Nurses (1973) and the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics (1985). However, in today’s ever growing world of technology and demand for information, challenges continue to arise that force doctors and nurses to reexamine virtues such as confidentiality.

Disclosing confidential patient information without patient consent can happen in the health care field quite often and is the basis for many cases brought against health care facilities. There are many ways confidential information gets into the wrong hands and this paper explores some of those ways and how that can be prevented.

Seeing information about a healthcare user in such terms makes me realise that some information is not necessarily in the public domain and therefore I have a privilege and responsibility to not only care for the patient but also for the knowledge about them that I am privy to. I realise that, although I have a duty to retain confidentiality, I may be placed in a position where the confidence has to also include other healthcare professionals and I need to involve the patient in such a situation (ibid).

“The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 made it illegal to gain access to personal medical information for any reasons other than health care delivery, operations, and reimbursements” (Shi &ump; Singh, 2008, p. 166). “HIPAA legislation mandated strict controls on the transfer of personally identifiable health data between two entities, provisions for disclosure of protected information, and criminal penalties for violation” (Clayton 2001). “HIPAA also has privacy requirements that govern disclosure of patient protected health information (PHI) placed in the medical record by physicians, nurses, and other health care providers” (Buck, 2011). Always remember conversations about a patient’s health care or

Finding out that people blame doctors for when their patient commits a crime puts my mind in utter disbelief. The law of patient confidentiality clearly states that the physician must keep all information a patient informs them in confidence, unless it acquires serious medical care, but if the doctor breaches the confidentiality by informing a third party without the patient’s consent, he or she could be sued. Doctor-patient confidentiality is based on the belief that a person should not be worried about seeking medical treatment in alarm that his or her problem will be shown to others. The objective of the relationship between the patient and their doctor is to make patients feel as comfortable as possible by providing them with any information they way need about their symptoms. This helps the doctor to make a correct diagnosis, and overall helping the patient feel comfortable enough to trust their doctor so that they may receive the best care. Once a physician takes a patient on, they must keep all the patient says and does in confidence; moreover, he cannot inform any third party of the patients wellbeing, but there are some exceptions like if the patient intends on causing harm to oneself or other or if it is an issue in a lawsuit. The court system claims A patient must have full confidence that their doctor will be able to keep all his or her medical issues private which helps the patient trust their physician. The professional duty of confidentiality not only covers

In the medical field or any other professions, privacy is paramount. One of the most important things is confidentiality. In this case, patients should be able to trust that they treating physicians will not disclose their personal information to other parties without their consent. The question then becomes: Under what circumstances is it alright for physicians to disclose private medical information to third party without informed consent? Did Dr. Shapiro have the right to disclose Mr. Lovington’s private medical information to his wife Anna, who is also his patient?

Respecting the patients’ privacy has always been an important aspect of the physicians practice. This is because health related matters are often private and no patient would want their private information accessible to anyone other than those directly involved in their case. The goals of HIPAA are to increase patient health information use and disclosure control, increase patient access to their records, limit health information use, secure transactions and storage, and establish legal accountabilities and penalties (Kumar et al., 2009, p. 186). In the post HIPAA environment there are less opportunities for the wrong people to get their hands on patient records. The information obtained at each patient flow checkpoint is broken up so that the information that is specifically needed for each department is available for only that department. For example, billing information gets sent and stored in a financial database (Kumar et al., 2009, p. 189). The billing employees only see the data related to the billing and not medical, treatment, or procedure specifics. Mainly, patients want to know what a physician is doing to protect their privacy (Hartley & Jones, 2014, Chapter 5). There is usually a reason as to why a patient expresses extra concern regarding his privacy. For example: A teenager is experimenting with drugs and calls the office for help, a man tests positive for hepatitis C and feels like he may lose his job,

Confidentiality implies any data that is held around a specific individual is favoured and private. It is the obligation of all health care providers to verify that this data is open just to those approved to have admittance to it… Information around an individual ought to regularly just be shared on a need-to-know premise. All data held inside of my department is secret to the hospital in general. Confidential data about people can be examined with other social nurture bona fide reasons, for example, for one specialist to hand over toward the end of their day of work to another who has quite recently gone ahead obligation or when one health care provider needs to cover the work of their partner whilst they are on leave. General exchange around

Security: - which states that Protected Health Information (PHI) should not be distributed without patient authorization, unless there is a clear basis for doing so, and the individuals who receive the information must safeguard it.

When it comes to health care, one of patients’ primary concerns is the protection of their private information. It is for this reason that Congress created the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). HIPAA affects nearly all communication between patients, providers, payers, and intermediates such as pharmacies (Fremgen, 2012). Physicians may need to refer a patient to another practice for tests or further treatment. At any time, a patient has the right to request copies of his or her medical records. To collect payment for services, a clinic may need to provide an insurance company with the patient’s diagnosis. Staff must also cooperate when circumstances unrelated to patient care require the release of confidential information. It is critical that staff avoids confusion and properly implements the privacy policy. Medical personnel must exercise caution when communicating patient information, be familiar with special circumstances, and not misinterpret the privacy laws to the detriment of patients and other involved parties.

Everything discussed between a doctor and patient has to be confidential. This means whatever the patient tells the GP, the GP is then not allowed to go and discuss this with other people. If a GP was to break this right then they are disrespecting the rights of the patient and there could be consequences for the GP. However sometimes it is difficult for a GP to keep that confidentiality if he thinks the patient is in any danger, for example a GP has been told in confidence by a vulnerable elderly women that her carer has hit her, the GP would either try and persuade his patient to tell someone about the incident or he could contact social services to make a safeguarding referral. Doctors should respect the patients wishes and keep the confidentiality

It is important for the both the patient and health care provider to understand what information is being protected, as to avoid any security breach. This protected information included any information in various medical records, patient conversations with all health care professionals about care and treatment, billing data, and a majority of other information regarding patient health. Any patient has the right to see and receive a copy of any health records, request correction be made to a variety of health-related information, control over who the medical records are shared with,

Patients have the right to their privacy that shouldn't be infringed without informed consent. Any patients information shouldn't be distributed to others without a patient's consent. Patients privacy is essential for establishing an effective relationship between a medical and maintaining the patient's security. At any given point a patient has the right to see their information.

Protected Health Information (PHI) is the definition used by HIPAA. It is any health information recorded or spoken that was received by a health care provider, health plan, public health authority, life insurer, school or university that describe the past and present physical or mental health occurred of an individual. This health information is personally identifiable to the patient and this information was exposed during the health service care. PHI was established to guarantee safety of the population. However, when the confidential information is violated and HIPAA protocols are not followed, the individual will have dealt upon a classification (Credentialed and non-credentialed faculty and students). Depending on the severity of the

Confidentiality and privacy are hallmarks of health care in Ontario. A person’s health information belongs to that person and they have a right to consent to the use, collection and disclosure of that information, with limited exceptions. They also have the right to access their personal health information. Most people are very concerned about their privacy, especially when it comes to matters of their health. Moreover, privacy and confidentiality are cornerstones of establishing trust in the therapeutic relationship between the practitioner and the patient/client. This includes keeping any other personal information about a patient/client confidential. A patient/client who can trust that his/her personal health information is being protected is more likely to provide a complete health history, which would enable more effective treatment (CKO, 2013).