Case Study 1 :WITHDRAWAL OF LIFE SUPPORT
Challenges
With great surprise and resentment, a patient’s
wife overhears two hospital staff members talking
about her husband’s illness while riding a crowded
elevator.
Question
What are some of the dimensions of
confidentiality?
Solutions
Health care professionals must protect patients’ right to privacy. They should discuss a case, for the patient’s good, appropriately, and only after obtaining the patient’s informed consent (explicitly whenever possible, or at least implicitly) Maintaining confidentiality strengthens the patient’s trust in healthcare professionals and greatly boosts the institution’s reputation. Patient care, above all, will improve, as patients become more willing to cooperate with the staff the more they feel that their personal information will not be divulged.
A patient can expect personal records to be scrutinized by at least 75 health care professionals. Further encroachments could be made by those legally responsible for the patient’s bills (insurance companies, government agencies, etc.), database administrators, computer hackers, etc. Hence, unnecessary disclosure of the patient’s condition must be avoided.
To help maintain confidentiality, health care professionals should refrain from asking embarrassing revelations. They should avoid discussing cases within the hearing of hospital roommates, visitors, or medical personnel not involved in the case, for example, in physicians’ lounges, over cocktails, at dinner parties with colleagues, or in elevators. Discussion not directed to patients’ welfare should likewise be avoided (such as moral habits, family situation, business problems, etc.). As a general principle, only those actually designated to help should know about the patient’s case.
