Confidentiality Notes

Ethical theories and principles that are related to confidentiality are- confidentiality is one of the most basic principles in health care practice and it is the most long-standing ethical dictum in health care codes of ethics. It is the practice of keeping harmful, shameful, or embarrassing patient information within proper bounds. The right to privacy gives legal standing to this ethical principle.). a reliable test for who among team members should be given certain types of information is need to know basis. It is necessary for one to adequately perform ones specific job responsibilities- meaning that by giving the information does it provide the adequate caring response that is required for the patient)

Immediate aims of confidentiality are to: 1. Facilitate the sharing of sensitive information with the goal of helping the patient 2. Exclude unauthorized people from such information 3. Discern need to know information from mere interest when deciding what to share.

Confidentiality serves as one cornerstone for the solid foundation of a trusting health professional-patient relationship that should be built

AMA principles of medical ethics states that:- a physician shall respect the rights of patients, of colleagues and of other health professionals and shall safeguard patient confidences within the constrains of the law. This provides a conflict when a physician knows that some secret may be harmful for the patient and yet are bound to keep it.

Breaking Confidence- Legal exceptions to the standard of practice that confidences must be kept, except with the patient’s consent or at the patient’s request to break it include * An emergency in which keeping the confidence will harm the patient * Patient is incompetent or incapacitated and a third party needs to be informed for decision making for the patient * Third parties are at a risk for harm (eg. Sexually transmitted diseases, child or other abuses) * Request