Here are a few simple ways to test your office for patient confidentiality:
- Sit in the patients' waiting area and listen to the front desk. Can you hear discussions of patients' financial status or medical conditions?
- Walk throughout the office. Do you see any computer screens displaying patient information at the nurses' workstation?
- Could unauthorized personnel see information on loose paperwork needing to be scanned (e.g., incoming lab reports, referral forms)?
- Does your policies and procedures manual address patient confidentiality and consequences should a breach occur?
Your policies and procedures manual also should address the confidentiality of business records, personnel matters, and staff performance issues.
If you need help solving problems associated with patient or interoffice confidentiality, TMA Practice Consulting can help through an operations assessment, on-site training, or development of a custom policies and procedures manual. Or create your manual using TMA's customizable Policies and Procedures: A Guide for Medical
Practices.
Updated May 25, 2017
TMA Practice E-tips main page
Last Updated On
May 25, 2017
Originally Published On
March 23, 2010