An emergency room physician in Rhode Island lost her privileges due to her posting some notable cases on Facebook in which she never used the patients name or ages. To the hospital’s and physicians dismay “unauthorized third parties” were able to determine a patient’s identity from the post online. When the physician learned of this, she immediately deleted the account. The hospital determined that the physician used her Facebook account “inappropriately”. The hospital did determine that she and the hospital that she had “no intention to reveal any confidential patient information.”
The action by the physician begs to answer two questions, Is the post an essential part of the patient’s medical care? Does it matter the amount of exposure the posting had, Facebook has over 500 million users? These questions need to be examined on a case by case situation. They are very important to consider though when deciding to do anything “public” as regards to a patient.
Unfortunately, the hospitals solution to this issue was to terminate the physicians hospital privileges. The Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure found the physician guilty of “unprofessional conduct” in which the Board charged the physician a $500 fine and she also was ordered to attend a CME course that focuses on physician-patient confidentiality issues.
Patient confidentiality is so important part of a physician and patient relationship and no one wants to find out that this trust has been breached. Although some physicians may violate a patients confidentiality by error in judgment. According to AMA “Principals of Medical Ethics.” Which states “A physician shall respect the rights of the patients, colleagues and other health professionals, and shall safeguard patient confidences and privacy within the constraints of the law.” The AMA clearly states that the principals “are not laws, but standards of conduct which define the essentials of honorable behavior for the physician.”
The AMA has also addressed the social networking device regarding physicians saying “A physician should be cognizant of standards of patient privacy and confidentiality that must be maintained in all environments, including online, and must refrain from posting identifiable patient information online.”
The confidentiality issue again is raised when it comes to sharing patient details for the purpose of medical education. Some medical education books show patients with black bars around their eyes to hide their identity. Other ways to hide the identity of a patient is to change the age, sex, side of the lesion and other recognizable details.
The bottom line for all parties involved is to ALWAYS obtain the patients consent this will cover you as the physician the hospital or medical facility and most importantly the patient and their care.
Marina Hall is a Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist (CMRS) and founder of MariAnn Medical Billing Service. To read a full “Interview with Marina Hall” visit her website at http://www.inscoding.com/aboutus.php
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