Violating A Patient's Privacy

Firstly, it would be a good idea to explain exactly what privacy is and then discuss the importance of privacy and some of the legal consequences that could arise when violating a patient’s privacy. I’ve always believed that privacy is one of the most important things when it comes to the patients care. Informational privacy is defined as the privacy of personal information and usually relates to personal data stored on computer systems. Also, I think it is very important to break down the general idea of privacy and make sure that it is defined and that we are able to fully understand privacy in its most basic form. Privacy is defined as the practice of keeping a patient’s information confidential. The concepts of privacy are also closely …show more content…
Privacy allows the fundamental values to remain upheld such as, personal autonomy, which allows the patient to still have a say in their medical decisions, and ultimately the final say and taking all medical advice and any outside research into consideration. Autonomy is a very crucial thing, because if the patients feel like they don’t have a say then they are just going to get discouraged and feel like their opinion doesn’t matter. Also, respect and dignity are very important aspects of privacy. If patient’s feel their respect and dignity have been compromised, that doctor-patient relationship will just be jeopardized, and possibly even ruined. If patient’s feel like confidentiality has been breached, then that privacy line has just been completely …show more content…
The patient being an unmarried teacher at a Christian school, and since it got back to the principal of the school and he/she overheard the conversation and ultimately fired the teacher for violating the school’s ethics policy for employees. You would think that while the medical assistants were talking that they would realize that they were breaking confidentiality by the things they were saying, but yet they continued. Not only did these medical assistants that were overheard talking about her in the elevator break that confidentiality agreement that they are required to uphold and that they previously had with the patient, but it also affected this teacher at her job at the school much more than they originally realized. Just by that confidentiality being broken, it’s taken a major effect on her level of respect and dignity that she previously had and that has unfortunately caused much more harm. When that protected health information was pretty much broadcasted for anyone around to hear and since it unfortunately got back to her principal and she was ultimately fired for it, this is now a much bigger issue. She is now going to have to face living with the stigma, embarrassment and discrimination that this has caused her when all of this could have been avoided had the medical assistants