Let's talk about the difference between privacy and confidentiality.
I'll start with a story to illustrate the difference.
There is a recent case of a physician who looked at the records of people known to him and when that was discovered and it was very upsetting to the people whose records he did look at, he admitted that didn't he really appreciate the difference between privacy and confidentiality.
So, what he said was he had been trained in confidentiality so he knew that if he had looked at those records, he wasn't allowed to tell anyone else about that information. But he did not appreciate that he did not have a right to even look at those records if he wasn't providing care to those people or if it wasn't part of his authorized duties.
So, there's a glimpse into the difference between privacy and confidentiality. So, when I'm thinking about confidentiality, I'm thinking about a health care provider's obligation or an obligation on your whole team to keep somebody’s information confidential. So, not wrongfully use it or disclose it.
But, privacy is even more than that and privacy includes an obligation only to look at records if they've been assigned to you, if you've been working with that person. And, privacy is really about an individual's rights to decide who's going to have even access to that information.
Who are they going to include in their circle of sharing their information with those people?
Privacy is also about an individual’s rights to access their records that a health care provider holds. Privacy is broader.
Confidentiality is a really key aspect of privacy but it isn't the whole story and this is one of the key messages you want to share with your team so that they don't make a mistake like that physician.
So remember, confidentiality is don't tell but privacy also includes don't look if it's not part of your job.
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26 окт 2024
