Difficult Seasons

The privacy and confidentiality of the people we visit in the hospital are important.

Those of us who make hospital visits as employees or volunteers of a hospital are well aware of HIPAA, the federal health information privacy rule.  Patient information, except what is required for treatment, may not be shared.  If we’re not affiliated with a hospital, as lay chaplains, church leaders, or family and friends, we still need to be aware of HIPAA.

The good news is that we really don’t need any of the information protected by HIPAA to make effective hospital visits.  Even if we don’t know the person we’re going to visit, all we really need to know is their name and room number.  We don’t need to know why they’re there, who their doctor is, how they’re being treated, how they’re doing, or any other such information.  We’re making a visit to show them that we care about them as a person, and why they’re there is incidental.

But whether or not our visits to patients are bound by HIPAA, we need to respect the privacy and confidentiality of what we learn when visiting a hospital patient.  The person we’re visiting has a right to expect that what we see and talk about during the visit is confidential and will not be passed on to others.

Unless the person asks you to share something, or unless you obtain permission from them to share certain information, you shouldn’t do so.

This includes something as simple as putting them on a prayer list or putting information in a church bulletin.  Some folks just don’t want others to know about their illness or what they’re struggling with.

It also includes talking to others about the person.  We’re often tempted to do so because it’s interesting, maybe even dramatic, and because we have “inside” scoop to divulge because we’ve been there.

So, if there are things that come up during a visit that you think it might be beneficial to share with someone else, make it your practice to ask permission first.  “Would it be okay if I put this in our prayer email, or in our bulletin?”  “Would it be okay if I shared what’s going on with Dick or Jane?”

Maintaining your integrity as a person who can be trusted with sensitive information is big.

Tags: confidentiality, hospital visit, privacy

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 4:37 am and is filed under hospital visits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.