Sorry I couldn’t word that better, but I don’t know the proper term. My vocabulary is kind of limited and I have trouble putting thoughts into words.
I always see stuff about this rule, but I don’t really understand it. You can’t talk about what’s said during this appointment, but what does that entail? And what are the exceptions to this rule, because I think there are, right?
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It’s simply an easy way to say “doctor-patient confidentiality”.
Medical personnel are upheld to extremely strict privacy laws and regulations, to protect patient privacy and personal information. You’ve probably heard the term “HIPAA violation”. HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It’s a law that was enacted in 1996, in the USA, to protect patient privacy and confidentiality in terms of personal information and medical records. It’s an extremely strict law and medical personnel go to great lengths not to break it, because the penalties for doing so are incredibly severe. Most countries and regions have some form of this type of law that basically does the same thing. The EU an participating countries have GDPR for much broader purpose, but each country and region have their own laws that may add on to this and be more specific for medical information and cover the doctor-patient relationship.
The ONLY exceptions to this rule are: Forced by a court order (which has a TON of hurdles to get for lawyers and judges alike, need to meet extremely strict standards and might be very restrictive in exactly what type of information may be gathered (maybe only WHEN the patient had doctor’s appointments, or information about 1 specific visit, or visits with 1 specific doctor.), or if the doctor has grounds to believe that there is an ACTIVE and IMMEDIATE risk to life and health. These exceptions are carefully detailed and specified in law, and need to meet very specific criteria to be applicable.
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