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As you may know, the Standards of Practice set out the minimum standards in paramedic services. Each regulated member is required to understand and comply with these Standards, but how does this translate in the day-to-day work of EMRs, PCPs, and ACPS?
In an effort to help regulated members understand and apply the Standards to real life situations, we will be sharing scenarios that give context to the Standards and ideas on how to implement this into practice.
The following scenario will attempt to address privacy and confidentiality:
2.1 Privacy and Confidentiality
A regulated member upholds a patient’s rights to privacy and confidentiality by:
- Complying with all relevant privacy
- Maintaining an environment and engage in practices that protect the privacy and confidentiality of patient information.
- Accessing records, information and archival systems only as required for the provision of professional services.
- Ensuring any risks to privacy and confidentiality of patient information involved in the transport of records from one location or medium to another are minimized.
- Limiting information disclosed and the number of people informed while still fulfilling medical, legal and research obligations.
- Not disclosing or using the name or identifying features of a patient unless the regulated member has obtained the patient’s prior written consent to disclose or use the information for purposes unrelated to the patient’s care, or unless otherwise required or permitted to do so by
Scenario:
Matt and Amy are paramedics in Edmonton. They are called to a house and on arrival they find a group of young adult females. The ladies are insisting their friend is experiencing abdominal pain, but she (the patient) is downplaying her symptoms and appears to be uncooperative with needing medical help. Matt and Amy start to try and get a history from their patient, but she is not providing full answers and is avoiding questions. At this point, Matt decides to gather all the bystanders and bring them into a separate room. This allows Amy to try to work with their patient in private and Matt to get a detailed account of the events from the friends.
While there may be many reasons patients refuse to be cooperative with paramedics, Matt bringing all the other bystanders into another room gives the patient the opportunity to provide private or confidential medical information they may not be comfortable providing in public.
It is important to remember privacy is often a key component for members of the public to feel comfortable with medical providers.