Case Study: Patient Confidentiality

1. Identify all ethical violations in the case and the specific incidents that these were violated.
Ethical Violations & Specific Incidents
The ethical violation presented in this case is mainly focused on the Breach of Patient Confidentiality
wherein the physician and the billing clerk violated the patient’s decisions not to disclose information to
others. This is seen wherein Grant going against Jenna’s wishes not to disclose information regarding
her most recent appointment as well as the billing clerk confirming to Mrs. Peterson that Jenna had an
appointment on the day she questioned. It should also be noted that due to the double billing of
Jenna’s appointment wherein the billing office pursued filing Jenna’s billing statement of Jenna to Mrs.
Peterson insurance account as opposed to Jenna’s request to personally pay and send her the billing
statement to her college dormitory as well as billing Jenna directly to her college dorm a month after
was the reason why Mrs. Paterson raised the question of whether or not Jenna visited the hospital.

2. How can these ethical violations be prevented?

Given that the physician is aware that she divulged too much of what should have been said as
well as the presence of error in terms of billing, these violations could have been prevented if there
was a organized system of rules and regulations governing patient confidentiality in the hospital. Dr.
Grant, who later on realized that she committed a breach of confidentiality towards Jenna, could have
prevented this if the hospital provided detailed policies regarding patient information disclosure. As for
the billing office, the hospital could have also provided a set of regulations for patients who have
specific instructions regarding their billing addresses. As I see it, it is a matter of building and adapting
a structuralized system regarding patient confidentiality and privacy. In this light, having a set of
systematized patient confidentiality regulations and policies in the hospital and requiring all healthcare
staff and workers to sign a confidentiality agreement could help the hospital staff create solutions for
patients, just like Jenna. Moreover, the hospital should hold an orientation of possible legal
consequences for breaching confidentiality and have routine orientations on maintenance and
troubleshooting problem areas and situations concerning patient confidentiality. As mentioned in the
case, there was an attending privacy officer yet, never experienced situations in the hospital of this
kind, therefore the hospital should ensure to hire a well-equipped and experienced privacy officer who
is dependable and trustworthy in terms of dealing with patient confidentiality situations.