Breaches of Doctor Patient Relationship

Breaches of doctor-patient

Confidentiality plays a vital role in doctor-patient relationship. It is a bond of trust between a doctor and a patient. It is a duty of a doctor to keep the patient’s information and records confidential during and after his treatment period. Only then the patient can seek medical assistance with a trust that his/her doctor won’t disclose their personal information. This not only includes patient’s information it also includes what the doctor learnt while dealing with that patient. It also includes all medical reports, x-rays, scan reports and other lab reports. The details of the patient stored electronically should also be kept confidential.

Breach of doctor-patient confidentiality is one form of malpractice. The doctor is not supposed to disclose any of the patient’s information to a third person without his/her permission. This also applies to the staff working with the doctor. The doctor should be confidential even after the treatment period of the particular patient is over or he/she has stopped seeing the doctor. Access to the patient’s records which are stored for further reference by a third person should be denied. All the patient’s records should be kept safe and inaccessible to unauthorized party.

Anyhow there are exceptions to this condition. The patient’s personal information and records can be disclosed by the doctor incase it is demanded by authorized party like State Health Officials or Insurance Company etc. And the exceptions are limited. Action will be taken against the doctor in the case of unauthorized disclosure of a patient’s records to an unauthorized party.