Confidentiality

Introduction

In an online CME, an audience (pharmacist) asked the speaker (doctor), how to break the barrier so that a patient will be willingly to discuss contraception options with you at community pharmacy setting.

The speaker replied, to have a separate counselling room at community pharmacy would be the first step, because it makes the patient to feel more comfortable to discuss as their privacy is respected.

Patient Expectations

Matters related to health and illness are highly private affairs.

Pharmacists and pharmacy staff are expected to maintain the confidentiality of any patient or customer they have contact with during the course of their professional duties. Information that should remain confidential includes the following:

• Patient's identity and address
• Diagnosis
• Details of prescribed and non-prescribed medicines

To Avoid Unintentional Disclosure

It is important to develop good habits when dealing with patient information.

• Try to discuss medication with a patient in a reasonably private area.
• Do not discuss patients in public areas, e.g. the lifts or the front of the shop.
• When discussing a patient with colleagues for patient care or training purposes (e.g. case presentation), be cautious about revealing names or other patient identifiers.
• If talking about your work to family or friends, only talk about patients in very general terms.
• Ensure no unauthorized personnel can gain access to patient medication records (e.g. passwords for data stored electronically).
• Do not dispose of confidential documents and other media-containing sensitive information with regular waste. Discard in an appropriate secure container or in a shredder.

Summary

Patient confidentiality must be borne in mind. Information should only be shared on a need-to-know basis and with patient consent.