Doctor-Patient Confidentiality?

[Mickeyluver37]

I find it hard to believe that they ask for all this identifying information to protect the patient, or because they "care." Face it, they ask for your SSN so they can collect on a debt if you don't pay your portion in the long run. I understand it's a business, and I don't have a problem with it, but don't sugar coat it and act like it's for the patient's protection.

 

[Abbie]

Of course, things like the Geneva Convention for the well-being of soldiers mean as little as the Hippocritic Oath does for the well-being of patients. That is not a typing error. I mean it the way I wrote it because health care is not even about treating the patient but what doctors and hospitals can bill insurance companies for.

I am following up on what happened in my doctor's office with a letter I wrote to my doctor yesterday because he already knew that I was angry there. I am telling him the truth that I wouldn't even be going to the doctor if I didn't feel obligated. If I had a condition from which I could die, odds are good that I would just make my good-byes rather than put up with people whose attitude is "Just pay us. We don't care about your problem." Even with insurance and an income, that attitude is what I have come to expect from doctors and their staff.

I feel sad for people like you that are so convinced their doctors don't care and are just in it for the money. While there may be some doctors (and staffs) out there that are like that, there are many that are excellent at what they do and really care about their patients' well-being. I'm so glad I know so many who fit that description rather than the first! If you don't like or respect your doctor it's time to find a new one. Although I suspect, from your postings, that you will never find one that meets your satisfaction.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I feel sad for people like you that are so convinced their doctors don't care and are just in it for the money. While there may be some doctors (and staffs) out there that are like that, there are many that are excellent at what they do and really care about their patients' well-being. I'm so glad I know so many who fit that description rather than the first! If you don't like or respect your doctor it's time to find a new one. Although I suspect, from your postings, that you will never find one that meets your satisfaction.

I don't konw about others--but this is how I "shop" for doctors. I don't expect Ritz-Carlton treatment, but I do expect to be respected as a human being.

I will fire a physician (or dentist--or any other health care professonal) if their bedside manner is crap and if the entire experience visiting them makes me feel terrible for bothering the staff that day.

I just have no patience being a patient who will be walked on willingly and then get upset when the poor staff isn't changing their ways. You get what you pay for and walking often is the best medicine when the business relationship sours.

I'm still puzzled as to what any of this has to do with the thread title.

 

[BelleWDW]

What law? My dentist doesn't take the patients' pictures.



What law requires doctors to take mug shots of their patients? Has this been been demanded of you in a doctor's office? I don't believe that the law requires this so I am going to be contacting my representatives. Remember your doctor is under no legal duty to treat you, not even his own diagnosis made with tests he pressured you into.

Whatever happened to doctor-patient confidentiality?!

Wow-overreact-much?

My dentist has a picture of my face and my mouth
I think one of my specialist does too-it helps when Doc is quickly reviewing the file to place a face with a nane-with all the hundreds of patients-it probably helps doc "jog" his memory.

The others dont-yet-maybe its a new procedure for Insurance theft?

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

On a recent visit to our ER I was asked for my photo ID but seeing how my DH drove me there I had not need to take my purse. So I was told that in the future I must show photo ID in case the doctor needs to write and RX for a strong pain killer type drug.
Has to do with people who are druggies who go to the ER or a doctors office claiming to be someone they are not in order to get drugs by illegally using someone elses identity.
I totally agree with this new practice. Why chance having someone else use my name to seek treatment thus leaving me stuck with a dr/hospital bill that really is not mine. And to have them support their habit by using my name!

 

[Genesia]

I find it hard to believe that they ask for all this identifying information to protect the patient, or because they "care." Face it, they ask for your SSN so they can collect on a debt if you don't pay your portion in the long run. I understand it's a business, and I don't have a problem with it, but don't sugar coat it and act like it's for the patient's protection.

I can't speak for what goes on in doctor's offices. I have never worked in one. I do know what goes on in hospitals. It is pretty awful. I have been dressed down for getting too close with the patients whom we are supposed to treat as nothing but sources of revenue for the hospital.

I requested a day off to attend the funeral of a patient we had all known because his mother asked me to give the eulogy. She wanted it enough that she insisted upon paying for my airline ticket to reach the family. I worked another day instead for a co-worker more than willing to switch with me because this meant that she got Independence Day off. The nursing supervisor acted like I was committing some major crime by attending patients' funerals at all.

I feel like we are not allowed to treat our patients as people. One elderly patient was discharged from our hospital and later found wandering the streets with her hospital bracelet still on and returned to the hospital by the police. I can't prove that she was dumped for economic reasons, but I am suspicious.

She was important to me. I signed her out of the hospital on a day pass once. We went to a place with a Santa Claus. The patient's mental age was much younger than her physical age so we got in line to see Santa Claus and had our picture taken with him. I bought a copy for her. She took it back to the hospital and stood it on her night table. She had no family that we knew of, but she had some visitors from her church one day. I wasn't working that day, and her visitors had never met me so they asked her "Is that your daughter?" when they saw us together in that photograph. I thought the patient was making that up because her mind wasn't all there. Someone from housekeeping had witnessed though and said it really did happen that way. This helpless old lady was apparently just dumped on city streets to fend for herself. Apparently this happens pretty regularly according to a reporter I called to report my suspicions. The hospital told me that she could not come live with me while family was sought.

I now have a new license to administer anesthesia. I offered my services for free to a child in need of a transplant because the parents were so frantic as to how they were going to pay. I was informed that the family must pay for any work I did for free. He didn't live. He was eight.

I do have the right to make a living. I don't have the right to be dismissive of suffering because I want to sacrifice someone else on the altar of my greed. I can tell that the original writer here is too frustrated and distraught to say well what needs to be said, but that doesn't mean that that person is wrong. I do bill insurance companies for my work, but we need some serious reform in health care in this country. Anyone saying so gets shouted down in this country. That is what is happening to the starter of this thread who does have insurance and is paying medical bills out of pocket as well.

 

[laurie31]

I requested a day off to attend the funeral of a patient we had all known because his mother asked me to give the eulogy. She wanted it enough that she insisted upon paying for my airline ticket to reach the family. I worked another day instead for a co-worker more than willing to switch with me because this meant that she got Independence Day off. The nursing supervisor acted like I was committing some major crime by attending patients' funerals at all.

This is HIPAA at its worst. People (admins) are so afraid of violating HIPAA that they dare not treat anyone as if they care about them. It's NOT violating a patient's privacy to attend their funeral. It's very meaningful to the family, that their loved one meant enough to those who cared for them in their final days, that they would come to the service.

Your story of the elderly lady brought tears to my eyes. That's terrible that they wouldn't let you take care of her! We have several (I can think of 4 offhand right now) staff who have taken abandoned patients into their homes. How is it violating someone's privacy to care for them? Isn't that what we do?

We aren't even supposed to talk to patient's families if we see them in the cafeteria or the hall. How sad is that! No wonder they think we don't care.

 

[Disney Doll]

I feel badly that you guys work in a hospital like that. Where I work they would never think of discharging someone without a safe plan of care, even if it means eating the cost. And I think there are state regs against it, so next time youthink it's happening, give the state a call.

As far as getting close with the patients...I think that's a fine line we walk as healthcare providers. Obviously, if it's a patient you care for for months and months, you are going to develop a relationship with the patient and their family...it's human nature. But, we always do have to be careful of becoming so "close" that we lose our perspective as far as being a healthcare provider is concerned. I have gone to numerous patients' funerals and wakes over the years. I have never gone so far as to take a patient out on a pass for the day, because for me, I feel like that is over-stepping my bounds. I had a co-worker who attached herself to a patient, really took over the care of the patient even once she went home and the patient's family had to step in and really very firmly take hold of the situation. There's a line between the need it fills for the patient and the need it fills for the nurse....