Question

mary smith has been a patient of dr William's ftom 1985 to the present time. during that time, she has had 3 children and been treated for a variety of conditions, including depression in 1986 and herpes in 1990. mary and her husband george have filed for divorce. george wants custody of the children and is claiming that mary has a medical condition that makes her an unfit mother.an attorney acting on George's behalf in the divorce proceedings, has obtained a subpoena for Mary's medical records for the year 1995 to the present. dr William's assistant who is a medical records technician, copies Mary's entire medical record from 1985 to the present and sends it to the attorney. is there a violation of confidentiality? ehy/ why not?

Answer 1

There is a violation of confidentiality because certain information related to mental health condition, Sexually transmitted diseases or certain infectious disease cannot be released without patients consent first.In case if it has to be accessed or used ,then there should be solid reason that it has a direct harm on the others or is a threat to society ,only then information can be taken without patients consent by court's order.Here the medical record technician as not followed both the scenario thus disclosing the most personal information of the patient and violating the confidentiality.