Chrisostom John Course: Ethical Issues in Healthcare MidAmerica Nazarene University Introduction and case Summary Confidentiality in the Healthcare arena can be simply defined as the moral and ethical duty of the Practitioner to keep all the patient’s bio-data under lock and key, and offer a disclosure of those facts that the patient is legally mandated to disclose or deems fit to enhance their positive health outcome. According to the Segen’s Medical Dictionary, “Confidentiality is the ethical principle that a physician may not reveal any information disclosed in the course of medical care, unless the patient who disclosed that information poses a threat to him, herself or others’’ ( Farlex,2012). The judicial precedence set by Tasaroff v Regents of the University of Caliornia.17 Cal.3d 425,551 P.2D 334,131 Cal. Rptn 14 (1976) demonstrates vividly that unlike their counterparts in other medical disciplines, Psychiatrists may need a lower disclosure threshold given that they may see patients who are mentally volatile and potentially dangerous!( Farlex,2012).In this scenario, Prosenjit Poddar, a mental health patient student at the University of California, informed his Psychologist of his intent to murder Tatiana Tasaroff two months in advance. The Psychologist went ahead and disclosed this information to the campus police who held the patient for a brief period and released him upon deeming him rational only to end up killing Tasaroff !The
Confidentiality: Acknowledgement of the process of keeping trusted information private by the clinician, while distinguishing the reason for breaking one’s promise in keeping information secret; through written and verbal communication.
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.
Care providers strive to provide care that is patient focused that maintains confidentiality and respect. This paper is about the maintenance of patient confidentiality and the trusting relationships that must be maintained between the patient and the healthcare providers.
Confidentiality is considered a core value or principal in the medical practice. Confidentiality is a right that all people have within the medical field. This is the requirement of health care providers to keep a person’s information exclusive unless the patient or the person consents in the form of a release to share that information with other people that practice. Usually the consent is given when a doctor wants to consult with a different doctor for example. In this case it would be for the betterment of the person.
As a professional health care worker, the implication confidentiality breach regarding ethical dilemmas are significant to nurse and patient. The information disclosed can cause problems on a personal and professional level. Breach of confidentiality occurs when the heath care work discloses the patient 's medical or personal information without the patient 's informed written or verbal consent. Confidentiality is needed between the nurse and the patient to maintain a good open and honest relationship between both parties. There are several ethical implications regarding breach of confidentiality, for example,
On the campus of the University of California, Tatiana Tarasoff was killed by Prosenjit Poddar just two months after being detained by campus police for making such threats in a counseling session. According to Public Health Law, Poddar expressed that he was going to carry out the action of murder during two different counseling sessions, which his psychologist, Dr. Moore, had no choice but to have him detained. He was released after promising to stay away from Tarasoff, however, he followed through on killing Tatiana Tarasoff. During this time frame, according to the “Facts” from a casebriefs.com (page 2), the psychologist sought out other professionals for insight. The reason for consensualizing was to get others’ insight as to whether is was the psychologists place to warn Tatiana Tarasoff or her parents of this threat, and break confidentiality with her client. The conclusion drawn was to not warn, which was advised by Moore’s superior, or protect Tatiana, and as a result, she was murdered by Poddar in 1969.
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,
Before a health care organization implements an EMR system, they should have a security system in place, which includes “access control” component. Access control within an EMR system is controlled by distinct user roles and access levels, the enforcement of strong login passwords, severe user verification/authorization and user inactivity locks. Health care of professionals regardless of their level, each have specific permissions for accessing data. Even though the organization have the right security system in place to prevent unauthorized users from access patient records, autonomous patients will expect to have access to his or her records with ease. Access their record will ensure that their information is correct and safe.
Confidentiality is one of the most paramount aspects of patient treatment and care as it often associates with client safety, and is a fundamental human right throughout the world. This is acknowledged throughout the health care industry and has been the purpose for several codes, laws, and guidelines being implemented in Australia. All people around the world have the right to their information kept private and confidential unless they give permission to have it divulged to a wider audience. Every patient and client that seeks or is given medical attention from any health care provider in Australia has the right to feel they can trust the health care professionals providing their care and treatment.
Introduction In the UK, all the people who are using the health services are expectant that the providers of care should be able to treat most of their information with a lot of confidentiality. The relationship between most of the doctors and the patients has to be built on trust and this is enhanced by the way the doctors treat patient information and data. The doctors have to keep the patient information very confidential because this can lead to a great relationship existing between them.
The question of when is it justified to disclose patient confidentiality depends on the risks associated. Keeping of patients’ records remains important to any clinical officer. The CMA code of ethics advices the keeping of patient’s personal health information private and can only be released to the third party as outlined by law (Fowler, 2008). In the case study, patient’s confidentiality has been put to test in that there first existed keeping of the patient records confidential and proper treatment was offered but this has been betrayed. The forgery of the record and refused to cooperate with the patient poses a threat to the recovery of the correct information necessitating reporting the case to the police; acting according to the state
Confidentiality is a very crucial and importance principle. It is the principle that “binds the practitioner to hold in strict confidence those things learned about a patient in the course or medical practice
When the information of a patient is not disclosed, patients mind are always at ease. They are not tensed about their level of confidentiality with their doctor’s breached (Mazor, Simon 2004).
Caring for Patients While Respecting Their Privacy: Renewing Our Commitment, by Erickson, and Millar, (2005), describes the challenges of maintaining patient confidentiality and privacy. It explains the difference between patient right and confidentiality and the strategies on how nurses can uphold patients rights. Although it is a compelling article the data from other research would have made it stronger.
It is the hospital’s responsibility to keep all the information about the patients private, the only one who can see the medical record