Lily is a nurse for an orthopedic physician, Dr. Baker, in a small town where ev

Question

Lily is a nurse for an orthopedic physician, Dr. Baker, in a small town where everyone knows each other. One day when Lily noticed 4 people waiting to check-in, so in efforts to assist, she went to the front desk to check-in patient’s as well. While doing so, she sees Mr. Smith in the waiting room and says out loud “How are you healing from your knee surgery? Are you still in pain?” Mr. Smith replied “Yes, I’m still in pain.” After helping at the front desk, Lily takes Mr. Smith back to an examination room. After taking his vital signs, she is relayed a message from the front desk that Dr. Baker was called into the hospital for an emergency situation and all patients needed to be rescheduled. In addition, Lily was asked to look in the supply cabinet and give whatever pain medicine she thinks will work for Mr. Smith’s pain until he’s able to be seen by Dr. Baker. Lily picks a pain medication and sends it home with Mr. Smith.

Did the nurse in this scenario breach the patient’s confidentiality? Why or why not? Support your response using evidence from the scenario and outside sources.

Explanation / Answer

Yes the nurse breached the person’s confidentiality. The nurse spoke loud about Mr. Smith’s knee surgery and painful condition in the presence of other people, this is violation of privacy rules. Any healthcare person should not talk about the patient’s ailment, injury, diagnosis or any other medical condition in front of others or in public area. If it is done, it is the disclosure of confidentiality and violation of HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).

Other condition which indicates such violation is discussion of any kind of patient information in public area in a hospital, or talking about the patient with others outside the hospital. This is disclosure of confidentiality of the patient.

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