Patient Confidentiality

Today’s focus is patient confidentiality.

It is imperative that we guard our patients’ personal information such as names, current or previous addresses, bank account information, credit card details, telephone numbers, emails, and other means of personal identification. A patient’s file may be exclusively electronic, or it may be a paper file.

In whatever form, members of the dental team have to be very protective of each patient's information.

That means that the patient's information should not be in a place for other patients to view. It also means that team members shouldn't be viewing patient information unless they're doing something specific for that patient.

We have to be very careful about sharing patient information.

If we have an adult child or a spouse, we have to get permission from that young adult to share information with their parent, or we have to get permission from one spouse to share information about the other. They have to explicitly give permission to share.

Otherwise, it really could become a very sticky situation. And sometimes it's challenging because there are times when you are treating adult kids but their parents are responsible for their finances.

So we have to make sure that all lines of communication are open and that as we share, we're not crossing any lines that we ought not to cross because, without proper permission, you could be breaching HIPAA regulations.

Here are some very common examples of what NOT to do:

1. Don’t check on a patient’s chart to see what they do for a living because you think that the person might be a good fit to set up with your friend.
2. Don’t call a patient who is a physician to describe your symptoms because you're not feeling well.
3. Don’t discuss a patient's treatment within the earshot of another patient, and do not discuss patients or their treatment beyond the walls of the dental office.
4. Don’t leave a message about treatment with a spouse or a parent unless you've been given specific permission to do so.
5. Don’t leave a specific message about any appointment when you call a patient's place of employment. You simply leave your name and your number and ask that the person return your call.
6. Don’t post before and after pictures of patients on social media without their permission. That includes people you may inadvertently capture in the background of your video clips, even if they are not the main focus. Ask first if it is ok to use their image or better yet, have them sign a declaration that permission was granted.
7. Don’t allow patients to be aware of others who have visited the office from the sign-in sheet. Establish a system or method to conceal the names of your visitors.

As professionals, we have to be as discreet as we possibly can, because people get offended very easily. Sometimes they are offended and you have no idea because people will smile on their way out the door, saying to themselves, “I'm never coming back to this place again.” And you'd have no idea.

So, if you want your patients to trust you, it is important to be discreet in how you handle their information.

As Stephen Covey says, “If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy.” And that goes for all of us all the time. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy.

So confidentiality is the key, or one of the keys, for an irreplaceable dental assistant. You have to be trustworthy. Being trustworthy allows patients the freedom to speak openly about their oral conditions to the dental team.

When patients feel as if they can trust us, they usually end up being life-long patients. Isn't that what we want? Let’s talk again next time. Remember, we're better together.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 Would you like to LISTEN to this article?

This is Episode 4 of my Irreplaceable Dental Assistant podcast.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .