Patient Confidentiality

Fletch_Talon · Oct 29, 2008 4:39 AM

I've been watching a soap opera called All Saints, embarrassing I admit, but it being a medical drama raised some questions.

The whole patient confidentiality rules/laws, do they need to be reconsidered? I'm not saying trash them entirely, but certainly in my opinion, they need a revision.

Consider the following examples:

Someone has a terminal illness and chooses not to tell their partner/children/parent

Someone is pregnant or decides to get a miscarriage/abortion and chooses not to tell the father.

Someone has an infectious disease eg. STDs and chooses not to tell their partner/family.

Now, I'm aware that the confidentiality rules prevent doctors going around and spreading private information to anyone and everyone, but looking at those examples I can't help but think an exception should be made for people who stand to be harmed or affected by the patients condition.

Also, it's not limited to medicine, its mental health too, if a psychiatrist gets a confession of guilt over a crime, should they be able to report it? I would be tempted to say yes, but then you have to consider the fact that a psychiatrist needs to know everything about their patient in order to help them, and a patient isn't going to tell them everything if they could get arrested for it.

keithnbrit · Oct 29, 2008 4:45 AM

Fletch_Talon wrote:

I've been watching a soap opera called All Saints, embarrassing I admit, but it being a medical drama raised some questions.
The whole patient confidentiality rules/laws, do they need to be reconsidered? I'm not saying trash them entirely, but certainly in my opinion, they need a revision.
Consider the following examples:
Someone has a terminal illness and chooses not to tell their partner/children/parent
Someone is pregnant or decides to get a miscarriage/abortion and chooses not to tell the father.
Someone has an infectious disease eg. STDs and chooses not to tell their partner/family.
Now, I'm aware that the confidentiality rules prevent doctors going around and spreading private information to anyone and everyone, but looking at those examples I can't help but think an exception should be made for people who stand to be harmed or affected by the patients condition.
Also, it's not limited to medicine, its mental health too, if a psychiatrist gets a confession of guilt over a crime, should they be able to report it? I would be tempted to say yes, but then you have to consider the fact that a psychiatrist needs to know everything about their patient in order to help them, and a patient isn't going to tell them everything if they could get arrested for it.

I'm particularly interested in the abortion thing.
Even if they devised laws that said "the father must be notified", what would that do? People would just say "i don't know who the father is" or they would name some guy they knew wasn't the father, who would just lie and say "okay". I think that they should print it in the local newspaper, right next to obituaries. I'm heavily anti-abortion. My gf got pregnant early, and we chose adoption. By having an abortion, the mother is saying '9 months of my life isn't worth a whole lifetime of yours' to her child, which is the sickest thing anyone could imply.
As far as STD's go, with untreatable, easily spreadable STD's, such as HIV, the person should be legally bound to inform any partner of it. And with genetic diseases, people should have to register in a database in which if one of your relatives, within your indirect family out to cousins, is diagnosed, you recieve notification via mail stating to get tested for it.
Those are my views...
i feel much better now. lol

Fletch_Talon · Oct 29, 2008 6:30 AM

well whilst i disagree with your views of abortion i agree with everything else, for example a man should be able to have a say in the fate of his child (whether it has or hasnt been born yet) provided he didnt *bleep* the woman, and provided he is prepared to take on responsibility for the child

now im sure someone will state that "its the woman's body to do with as she wants" but if you partake in sexual activity then you are accepting the possibility that pregnancy will result from it and if the man youve slept with believes abortion is wrong, or wants to keep the child then i think you should respect his wishes.

the most unlikely example ive seen of how men have no rights in regards to pregnancy was on boston legal. a chick stole a guy's sperm from the condom and used it to artificially inseminate herself.

now whilst it probably would never happen, it does raise the question, should a woman be able to do something like this and get away with it. the man couldnt demand an abortion take place, he couldnt charge her for theft as semen isnt recognised as being capable of being stolen, and he couldnt get her for *bleep* because the sex was concentual even if the passing of sex cells wasnt

so in the end she got away scott free, and he felt obligated to be with her because he knew what it had been like for him to grow up without a father

raven · Oct 29, 2008 2:44 PM

I guess those people that are going to be significantly or adversely affected by an issue should be informed of a particular patient's condition or issue, like Fletch Talon said (for example, the parents of a child who is having a baby herself, or the partner of someone with an STD). Other than that I think the laws are ok at present, although perhaps a little flawed.

If it's a child that is having the medical issue, well... I don't know. I guess it would depend on age, the seriousness of the issue at hand, and how much positive help parental intervention could give.

I believe that if doctors or whoever receive a confession of guilt for a crime from a patient that is related to the patient's medical condition, the doctors should be able to work without reporting it to police, unless by not doing so would harm the patient somehow. If doctors report them to police, I think it will cause patients to avoid the health system altogether, which could be bad for them.

#1 Oct 29, 2008 4:39 AM

Patient Confidentiality

#2 Oct 29, 2008 4:45 AM

Re: Patient Confidentiality

#3 Oct 29, 2008 6:30 AM

Re: Patient Confidentiality

#4 Oct 29, 2008 2:44 PM

Re: Patient Confidentiality

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