“What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about.” — Hippocrates
View full document. What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about. If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all …
Unformatted text preview: Confidentiality ‘‘What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameless to be spoken about”- The Hippocratic oath When the idea of “confidentiality” arises in health care settings, what thought does it provoke?
What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about. If I fulfil this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with ...
“What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about.” — Hippocrates quotes from Quotefancy.com
Approved for publication in 1995, the Guidelines for Professional Conduct provide a list of 99 specific “professionalism” concepts. This document addresses topics such as scheduling, continuances, extension, service, court submissions, communications with adversaries, depositions, interrogatories, motions, witnesses, ex parte communications, settlement, and pretrial and trial conduct. While the guidelines obviously were intended to help define the concept of professionalism, in the end they miss the mark. Many of the guidelines are so specific and detailed that they could easily be inserted into our ethical Rules of Professional Conduct, once again demonstrating the blurred distinction between ethics and professionalism. Simply put, the excess of information in the guidelines undermines their purpose.
Although approving a commonly accepted definition of professionalism could become a topic of great debate in The Florida Bar, it can be done. Hippocrates defined professionalism for doctors through the oath he authored over 2000 years ago.
Supporters of these CLE rules rightly note that even procedural rules can be meaningful. After all, The Florida Bar is empowered to enforce the rules, and can assume that the CLE programs will teach people something about professionalism.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
Work with others in your practice or facility to develop and implement a policy for maintaining patient confidentiality. All physicians and staff should be trained about, should understand and should follow the privacy policy.
Consider having staff members undergo yearly confidentiality training and asking them to sign a confidentiality agreement each time they complete the training.
Under the legal concept of vicarious liability, the physician employer can be held responsible for the acts of an employee that are committed in the course of employment. Thus, even though in this case it was the medical assistant who gossiped about the patient’s evaluation for an STD, both the medical assistant and the physician were liable. In this case, the patient’s private information was disclosed in conversation, but physicians must also protect documented patient information whether contained in paper charts or electronic health records. National and state privacy laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), are legal mandates that correlate with the ethical duty of confidentiality.
However, sometimes confidential medical information is leaked inadvertently when physicians or other healthcare providers carelessly discuss clinical matters in public places such as on elevators or in hospital snack bars. Unless given permission to talk about or release personal patient information, physicians and staff members should protect patients’ confidentiality by keeping such information private.
First course of treatment includes all methods of treatment recorded in the treatment plan and administered to the patient before disease progression or recurrence. In cancer treatment data registration, the date of the first course treatment is the month, day, and year of the first cancer-directed treatment that is administered.
Treatment of recurrence or progression (also called " subsequent treatment ") includes all cancer-directed treatments administered after the first course of treatment is completed, stopped, or changed.
Cancer Treatment. Cancer treatment involves medical procedures to destroy, modify, control, or remove primary, regional, or metastatic cancer tissue. The goals of cancer treatment include eradicating known tumors entirely, preventing the recurrence or spread of the primary cancer, and relieving symptoms if all reasonable curative approaches have ...
Non-cancer directed treatment refers to any treatment designed to prepare the patient for cancer-directed treatment, prolong a patient's life, alleviate pain, or make the patient comfortable. Non-cancer directed treatments are not meant ...
One reason for patients’ misunderstanding is the common belief, cited in the recent study, that if a treatment is offered, it must have curative benefits.
Doctor-patient communication has been the life’s work of the University of Toronto’s Dr. Wendy Levinson. Her landmark research comparing doctors who had never been sued for medical malpractice with doctors who had been sued at least twice offers valuable insights on why doctors get sued.
Dr. Ting, who conducts research on informed consent, said the problem of patient understanding is common in many areas of medicine.
Study authors admit that they were not present during “informed consent” discussions between patient and doctor, and so had to rely instead on what cardiologists told them they had said to patients.