HIPAA

(I wasn't going to write about this tonight, but the more I thought about it, Id save my original topic for my next entry... this topic though has been bugging me so why not briefly write about it)

One thing I am not, is shy and I tend to not become embarrassed easily. I am who I am, and I own it knowing full well somewhere there is a person who probably doesn't care for me for their own reasons to which I respond - to each his own. I don't hide the fact I have cancer or the trials and tribulations that have accompanied that diagnosis. Though I don't hide it, I also don't broadcast it for everyone to know. The people who know, are people who I trust won't judge me for one, but secondly I know won't gossip about it behind my back - these people respect my privacy.

Courtesy of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, anyone working on my case from a hospital standpoint cannot divulge virtually anything about me and why I am at the hospital. For nothing more than to protect patients privacy. Its a great thing to be able to go to your healthcare provider and be able to be perfectly honest with he or she and get the appropriate care in a timely manner. How would you feel if you couldn't trust your doctor, nurse or other tech/staff member because they might gossip about your diagnosis behind your back? How honest would you be with these people? Would you lose trust in the healthcare system altogether? It might sound silly, but the truth is, there are people who will refuse treatment because their trust has been abused, and their story has been used for nothing more than playground gossip.

Now, like I said, Im not embarrassed by my diagnosis and I don't think cancer is something to be embarrassed about but if you pause for a second and think... Im fairly certain you could think of at least five diagnoses that could be considered embarrassing that you would want kept private.

So seriously - think of five diagnoses that could be embarrassing for you and then lets say, for the sake of argument, you have been diagnosed with the worst of the five.

A good friend of mine who was recently diagnosed with one such illness trusted me enough to tell me about his condition and conveyed how important it was that it remain private but that he wanted me to know and that furthermore I was one of only three people who knew. This friend called me a few weeks ago, sounding bewildered and disconcerted at the same time, telling me one of his friends with whom he had not shared his recent diagnosis had essentially asked if he had plans to start treatment. After a somewhat brief interrogation, it came to light my friends physician, who happens to be "younger" in age had been telling people about his patients who had 'interesting' cases and using names.

I have always been a member in the school of thought that respect for a friend means keeping private and confidential matters just that - confidential. Trust is probably the biggest aspect you can have in any relationship, be it with a partner, a friend or in this case especially, a physician. Without trust what do you have? Not much to me.

Please don't take away my right to tell who I want, when I want, what I want. If I choose to keep certain things private, I do so because I choose to, and everyone should be afforded that luxury. I'm not sure what course of action I would take should my trust have been abused like my friends has been, and I hope I never have to even think about that happening. Needless to say, when I heard about this all I could think of was - I hope I never have my privacy invalidated and treated like I'm a water cooler gossip topic.

I suppose the point of my entry tonight is trust is the most important aspect of a relationship...