Welcome to Our

Office Practice!

Some reminders about

Patient Confidentiality and Trust
Welcome to Our Office, Our Patients!
 We are proud to have you join our office,
our patients.
 You are entering our
world of patients and
their very personal medical
problems.
 Be respectful.
We want to be a part of your education

 We want to help you achieve your objectives

in this clinical experience in our office.

 But even more, we want to help you evolve

in your goals of becoming an
excellent physician.
We welcome you…
 To the joy and responsibility…
…of caring for our patients and their families.

 Oneresponsibility is to abide by HIPAA rules that

guide patient confidentiality.
H.I.P.P.A.= The Federal Health
Insurance Portability & Accountability
Act of 1996/2003
 HIPAA rules were invented to…
 Balance between improving the flow of information
 While protecting the privacy of patients.

 The patient has the right to…

 Request access to health info.
 Request to amend their health info.
 Request restrictions to information sharing
 Request accountability of disclosures.
HIPAA rules require us to….
 Treatall things we learn about patients as
confidential
- We can’t tell anyone else
 Provide
more control to patients over their
personal health information
 Punishthose who misuse
patient information by
imposing criminal & civil
penalties
HIPAA rules say….
 You can’t talk about patients outside of the
office with anyone
 Cliniciansshould only access the medical
information that is needed for their
job/clinical experience.
 Weneed patients to give permission before
we can give information to others on their
behalf.
 Keep medical records in a secure
place-both paper & electronic.
If you are using electronic medical
records….
 You
should have a unique password-don’t
share with others
 Donot access information on yourself, your
family, your friends, staff or any other person.
 Youhave a duty to report any breach in
confidentiality to your supervising doctor.
 Remember most computer systems can track all access
to records.

 Inappropriate access is punishable by federal and state law.

You may see more information on-line
 Find the entire HIPAA privacy summary; sign up for alerts
www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/index.html

 See examples of privacy agreements & training materials

www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/hipaa
www.shadow.med.unc.edu
www.privacyrights.org
www.infoscope.mcw.edu/FileLibrary/GroupInfoScopeHIPAA
/MCW_HIPAA_Booklet.pdf

 Georgetown guides give rules for state by state records

http://hpi.georgetown.edu/privacy/records.html
Let’s suppose …

 You saw your teacher in the waiting room…..

…you are not allowed to tell anyone else

Let’s suppose…
 You really worked a lot with one patient and
got to know them well in the office…

…You must not e-mail or “befriend” them

on Facebook or other social networking
site.

X XX
This is a ‘professional’ relationship, not a social one.
Let’s suppose …

 Youwere very excited to see a patient’s new

walking progress and you take the elevator to
lunch with the nurse…

…You are not allowed to

talk about it in the elevator
around others.
We welcome you …
 Together we can do more…
...to care for our patients & their families.

Please sign our confidentiality

agreement now.
Thank you….

Welcome to our practice!