Confidentiality

Introduction

In an online CME, a pharmacist in the audience asked the doctor speaker how to overcome the barrier that prevents patients from willingly discussing contraception options at the community pharmacy.

• The doctor responded that having a separate counselling room within the community pharmacy would be the first crucial step. This private space would make patients feel more comfortable discussing sensitive topics like contraception.

In daily operations, you may also observe that customers often prefer to discuss sensitive health matters with pharmacists of a specific gender.

• For instance, they may be more comfortable discussing vaginal infections or menstruation with female pharmacists, while erectile dysfunction or condom use may be more openly discussed with male pharmacists.

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 illustrate, we should not publicly discuss a patient's condition with another colleague or customer when the patient has just left the community pharmacy.

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.