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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I am an Emergency Medicine physician in the USA.
What this means is that I will never betray your confidence. I won’t tell people what you say, I won’t make jokes about you, I won’t call your family, I won’t post on social media about you. I may ask if it is okay to speak to a family member (say, if they call while you are there) and if you tell me not to then I will pretend you do not exist.
My patient has my full regard.
There are two concepts at play. The ethical concept is called “Doctor Patient Confidentiality”. It means that your doctor is not supposed to share anything you tell them with others unless you give permission. If a doctor gossips about your confidential medical history, it is a serious breach of ethics. They will likely be punished by their medical board and shunned by peers for such a transgression.
There is also a legal concept in the United States, called HIPAA which stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It lays out the legal situations in which a physician or healthcare facility can and can’t share your health information, as well as when they are required to do so. For example, if you change doctors and request for your records to be sent to your new doctor, your previous doctor must oblige. Additionally, before being treated you often sign a HIPAA form which informs you that your doctor can share your medical records with insurance companies for billing purposes.
The exception to the rule is anything the country’s gov says it is. In the end, the rule is like all other rules. It only really matters(legally) in how it benefits the higher ups.
So you’re talking about dr-patient confidentiality. The gist of it is that your dr can’t talk about you to ANYONE without your permission with some exceptions (for instance your dr has to tell the police if you get shot, they have to tell the DMV if you have a seizure and have a driver’s license, and I think there’s a few other exceptions).
The idea behind it is that you need to be completely honest with your doctor to be able to get proper medical treatment and so they want to take away reasons you might lie (for instance when I was in the hospital my roommate had OD’d on cocaine. he needed to be able to tell the doctor what he’d taken for his treatment but if she could have ratted him to the police, or his wife, he’d have been more hesitant to).
There’s other professions with similar rules. For instance clergy are basically never allowed to report a conversation intended for spiritual guidance. And lawyers iirc can only report if they believe a violent crime is about to be committed. And even that one is controversial
I’m in the mental health field (not medical) but our clients also have the right to privacy and confidentiality.
It means that I can’t disclose identifying information about you or what we’ve discussed to other people unless you give your permission. I can’t tell my coworkers or husband that “My patient John Smith is deathly afraid of clowns” and if your girlfriend or boss calls, I can’t tell them “Yes, John Smith is my patient and I’m treating his clown phobia”.
There are some main exceptions to this where I can break confidentiality:
1) If you are a credible threat to yourself or others
2) If required by law- like if you’ve been mandated by a judge to be in treatment
3) If you’re a minor under the age of consent.
In cases where confidentiality can be broken, I still need to keep your wellbeing the top priority and only disclose what’s directly relevant and necessary.
I would like to add that this idea goes much further than just your doctor.
I’m a lab technician. I’m not allowed to tell anyone the result of your blood tests. I’m not allowed to tell anyone you even had a blood test. I’m not allowed to send your blood test results to other doctors. I can’t even tell *you* your results.
If I were to follow the exact letter of the law I *technically* shouldn’t even refer to you by name when I’m telling my colleagues “Oh Dave Daveson’s test finished running” because your name is a piece of Patient Identifiable Data and everyone’s samples get given a laboratory number, which isn’t, so I *should* use that instead.
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.
Your doctor can’t tell anyone about what you tell them except in very limited exceptions where they are required to report things like immediate risk to life and abuse of children.
Hi!
There are a couple of answers to your question.
* You can talk about your visit all you want.
* Your doctor has professional standards for your privacy they are required obey.
* There are also legal issues (Can a doctor be compelled to give testimony in court about what you spoke about?)
The legal details will depend on national and local law. In my area I (a pastor) am required to report a credible threat of “intent to do harm to others” even if it is made in what would otherwise be confidential professional session like counseling or confession.
Regarding professional standards, some doctors are really good at following them. Others are unfortunately not so professional.
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