Recent breaches in medical confidentiality involving celebrities serve as a reminder of this important rule in health care.
People have a right to privacy for medical information for the same reason as privacy for other personal information. Such information could be used in a way that ultimately affects the person negatively. It does not have to be intentional. One may view someone's personal information just out of his or her own curiosity, but the information could unknowingly fall into the hands of others.
In past weeks, the public have been paying attention to pop singer Britney Spears and her psychiatric issues as well as actress Farrah Fawcett and her battle with cancer. For both of these celebrities, at least one employee at the hospital snooped into their records without a justifiable need to know. Such actions destroy the trust that patients have in their health care providers. It is no surprise that these employees were fired.
Given the seriousness of medical confidentiality, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was written to minimize breaches in privacy. It can be summed up with a rule of thumb: you may review a patient's medical record only if you absolutely need to know the information to do your job successfully. If you work in health care, this is something that should not be forgotten.
