How does the whole “what you say will not leave this room” thing work with doctors?

994 viewsOther

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?

In: Other

40 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It is called medical confidentiality”generally and “Physician–patient privilege” in legal context.

The gist of it is that people need to be honest with their doctors, and without such guarantees, patients might conceal some facts that are very relevant to their treatment – say, someone comes with high/irregular heartbeat to ER, he denies taking speed, due to being afraid of potential police action afterwards, doctors misdiagnose as a result of…

Punishment for doctors who break it vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but are generally very severe, including revoking their medical license.

The only exception is if the information disclosed is a clear and imminent danger to others – imagine someone telling their therapist that they are planning going on shooting spree once the session ends…

You are viewing 1 out of 40 answers, click here to view all answers.