Scenario - Clinical Support Team Members

The following is designed for Clinical Support team members.

These scenarios will help you make practical decisions when you're in a situation where someone's privacy or confidentiality might be compromised.

Read them and choose the answer that makes sense to you. A pop-up will explain why your answer is correct or incorrect.

You work in a busy clinic where "no-shows" have been a problem. You decide to start calling patients the day before to remind them of their appointment.

What things should you remember when you are making the call - choose the most appropriate response:

1. Do not identify that you are calling from the hospital clinic unless the patient is on the phone.
2. Call more than once to avoid leaving a message on an answering machine.
3. If you need to leave a message - do not mention any personal health information. Simply leave a generic one, e.g. this is Linda at TDMH, could you please call me back at (phone number).
4. All of the above

An individual calls your area indicating they are a relative of Mrs. Daisy Duck. They inquire whether she has been admitted.

Do you provide the information?

• Yes - The presence or absence of an individual is not considered confidential
• No - This is confidential and private information

You are a communications clerk in Medical Imaging. You are in the examination room where a patient has just had their tests completed and is waiting to return to their room.

An individual - dressed in what appears to be a nurse's uniform - enters the room and approaches the patient. You gather by their conversation that he is the husband of the patient's business colleague.

After a brief talk, he walks over to the desk, opens the patient's health record and begins to read it.

What do you do?

• Do nothing, the individual seems to know the patient.
• Ask the individual who he is and by what authority he is looking at the health record