Legal Obligations of Confidentiality

It has come to our attention that a breach of confidentiality has occurred in our office. One of our patient’s has filed a complaint regarding a breach of his (PHI) patient health information. The breach occurred when two of our employees were discussing the patient’s HIV status in a common area in the presence of his mother. This is unacceptable and is a violation of the HIPAA Laws and our policies. Fortunately, the patient’s mother was aware of her son’s condition and there were no other patients within earshot. Let me make this clear, this was an unauthorized release of patient health information and we are obliged by law to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Not only is it a privacy issue but also a violation of the patients civil rights. We will address our expectations of our staff in regards to PHI and what safeguards will we improve to guarantee that this does on happen again. We will review our policies, HIPAA and the conditions for HIV/AIDS patients and the consequences for this breach in confidentiality.

Confidentiality is defined as the obligation of the health care provider to maintain patient information in a manner that will not permit dissemination beyond the health care provider. The origin of confidentiality is found in the Hippocratic Oath:

“I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.”

Not only is a breach of confidentiality unethical...

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...tion. We will perform yearly HIPAA training for all employees. We will share our policies with patients to build trust by making sure ALL our patients are given and read the Policies and have signed the consent forms. When leaving messages for a patient, we will simply ask the patient to return a call when calling work or home. When talking on a phone to a patient, do not use the patient’s name if others might overhear you. The most careful employee may be involved in a situation that /leads to a breach, it is vital that any breach of (PHI) is reported immediately to the Privacy Officer. Breaches must be analyzed to determine if it should be reported to both patient as well as the DHHS. We have 60 days from the discovery of a breach to take necessary action as required by law. If you are unsure whether or not an incident is a breach, call the Compliance Office.