How To Maintain And Value Patient Confidentiality

Healthcare workers handle sensitive patient information daily. Thus, it is pen and parcel of the job to actively protect the privacy and confidentiality of their major stakeholders. In Australia, The Code of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) legally monitors this practice, which requires all healthcare professionals to practice patient privacy and confidentiality. This gives patients the autonomy to use their information as they see fit and encourages individuals to trust healthcare workers without fearing data breaches. Learn more in this article on what to do to maintain patient confidentiality.What is Patient Confidentiality in Australia? Better Health defines medical confidentiality as a set of rules that limits access to information. Information refers to anything discussed between a patient and their healthcare providers. Generally, healthcare workers can only discuss private documents in limited circumstances.The doctor, the patient, and any other healthcare worker who may interact with the patient should keep anything discussed between them, confidential. In addition, patient privacy covers anything spoken or written, including medication and other types of documentation. Exemptions In line with this, patient privacy and confidentiality are part of the strict ethical rules and guidelines that all healthcare professionals follow. However, the Australian government provided these laws that exempt healthcare workers from ethical bounds: Australian Public Health Act 2011. Information may be disclosed in accordance with an authorization from the Chief Public Health Officer. Child Protection. Signs of abuse and neglect on a child may also be cause for mandatory disclosure of information. Summary Offences Regulations 2016. In 1953, the Summary Offences Act required disclosure (to police officials) when a patient arrives with a suspect injury (i.e. knife wound), but updated the law stating that the patient’s name will not be shared. Famous Patient Confidentiality Breaches in Australia Australia’s laws strongly value and protect patient confidentiality. As a result, patients feel comfortable sharing personal information with their healthcare providers, but this did not prevent a few instances of patient confidentiality violation. COVID-19 Information Leak In 2020, a website run by a 15-year old leaked information about patients suspected to have the COVID-19 virus. The disclosure of information wasn’t intentional, but, unfortunately, the relationships of some patients and doctors may have gone askew. Unencrypted paging network is the identified cause of the said data breach. Pagers have been obsolete for at least a decade. Although, many physicians still use this antiquated technology due to its low-maintenance, extended battery life, and amazing network coverage despite power outages. Finance is a concern, but it is still the primary responsibility of the physicians to do the most they can to secure patient information. With this, the Department of Health officially stated that patient databases must be heavily encrypted and secure. New South Wales Breach Before the pandemic, there were reported cases of New South Wales (NSW) hospital patients’ confidential records being proliferated in various locations and on multiple occasions. Healthcare spokesperson, Walt Secord, responded to the issue saying, “…medical records are incredibly sensitive. In many cases, you don’t even share them with your closest family members. The last thing you want is for them to be blowing around a carpark.” This may be one of the most irresponsible case of negligence of patient data privacy and confidentiality. 2015 Local Data Breach Three smaller local cases of data breach happened in 2015, all of which were under the monitoring of the New South Wales hospital. A healthcare worker unintentionally released the address of a patient to an ex-partner. In a separate instance, another healthcare worker intentionally accessed the electronic medical data of their former partner and their child. The last case involved two healthcare practitioners making “inappropriate comments” on a patient’s sexual assault documents.How to Maintain Patient Confidentiality With technology evolving by the day, the possibility of data breaches become more probable. Nonetheless, there remain some simple ways to secure patient data: No Phones — It’s fairly simple for people to record or photograph sensitive information whether actively or accidentally. By reducing phone usage in healthcare settings, there is less temptation and chances of breaching confidential information. Proper Disposal — When given identifiable patient information in any form, always keep track of them. Then, dispose when no longer needed. Paper shredders are an excellent way of discarding these information. Be Cautious of Phishing — Unless an encrypted email address is used, remember that emails are not a secure mode of communication. Additionally, suspicious emails linking to suspicious websites are most often a phishing scam. Blocking the email address and deleting the email reduces chances of falling victim to the scheme. Regular Training — All healthcare workers must be subjected to regular training sessions or seminars on how to maintain patient privacy and confidentiality. It is the duty of the healthcare institution to annually train all of their healthcare employees on data privacy. This contributes to the institution’s quality control and assurance. Store all information on secure systems — The best approach is to exchange all information on one secure, single platform. Alternatively, you can invest in a tool or software to manage records.Generally, patient confidentiality is important for both patients and doctors, and it preserves the integrity of the medical community. If you want to build a culture of trust within your practice, invest on secure solutions like Conva. Conva allows you to interact with practitioners and patients with security and safety through its in-app and encrypted messaging feature.