Wednesday, 26 November 2008
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Can A Doctor Talk Too Much About A Patient's History?
This is was a guest blog submitted by manishmathur
As I was reading the New York Times, I came across this article that intrigued me. The article was about a medical student who was turned off by her current doctor since he told her too much about other patients and his family. She thought he had gone too far, breaking the confidentiality that normally exists between a doctor and his/her patients.
Pauline Chen, who wrote this article, briefly mentions that her doctor may have done this as well because she too was in the medical field. I find this to be accurate since many of my family members (including my father and my sister) are either doctors or in medical school and they often share their experiences in full detail.
Did the doctor go too far by talking about a patient’s medical past with a med student? What would you do if you were in Pauline Chen’s shoes?
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Comments (4)
i believe that the doctor did go to far. the confidentiality between a patient and a doctor lies on a delicate balance. one slip-up could cost someone something they value.
Not only did he go too far, but unless it's clinically relevant to discuss patient histories, which it clearly wasn't since this was the medical student's own doctor, it's completely illegal. Every health care worker in a doctor's office or hospital, including secretaries, cleaners and cafeteria workers, must sign a form that they will not release unnecessary information to other people. Unless the medical student was treating the patients the doctor discussed, it was illegal.
What he did was ILLEGAL, unless he was sharing information on a need to know basis. If the medical student did not need to know this information - then the M.D. violated HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ).
if a doctor talks about a patients history i feel it should almost be jumbled with other diagnoses.
when i took psychology of personality last year my professor (who is the head shrink of my college) talked about peoples patterns and problems and mixed them up. mixed the names up and whatever else. he was still able to discuss what happened but no one was ever certain. even when talking about his family he would jumble stories and keep things confidential. if things are done in that manner to convey medical problems and exactly what the doctor is dealing with, it should be fine. but when its obvious who the patient is and all of their diagnoses its illegal.
my sister is a nurse at a pediatric office in a small town and wont even discuss anything with the family.