Good Practice Guide for Patient/Client Privacy

This good practice guide outlines the key improvement suggestions for protecting and managing patients’/clients’ privacy and confidentiality within the healthcare setting. These guidelines can be applied to all healthcare settings, including emergency departments, inpatient, and outpatient. However, healthcare providers must consider the environmental and social factors that differ between service settings. Remember, patient privacy is not just an ethical responsibility, but it also directly impacts healthcare outcomes, making your role even more crucial.

5 key improvement suggestions

Consider the following key good practice suggestions for providing patient/client privacy and confidentiality:

Ensure patient information is protected and secure
Providing patients/clients with adequate and reliable resources regarding their privacy and confidentiality rights
Establish protocols and expectations that respect personal privacy and confidentiality
Maintain transparency with patients/clients regarding the sharing of their information
Acknowledge and respond promptly to patients’/clients’ privacy or confidentiality concerns

Download the guide to delve deeper into these suggestions.

At Insync, we specialise in empowering organisations to excel in serving their patients. Reach out to us today to discover how our patient-centered surveys and tailored solutions can elevate your organisation’s performance and transform patient experience.

References

Abdel Jawad, L. (2024). Security and Privacy in Digital Healthcare Systems: Challenges and Mitigation Strategies. 42(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/09702385241233073
Abdelhamid, M., Gaia, J., & Sanders, G. L. (2017). Putting the Focus Back on the Patient: How Privacy Concerns Affect Personal Health Information Sharing Intentions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(9), e169. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.6877
Alipour, J., Mehdipour, Y., Karimi, A., Khorashadizadeh, M., & Akbarpour, M. (2023). Security, confidentiality, privacy and patient safety in the hospital information systems from the users’ perspective: A cross-sectional study. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 175(105066), 105066. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2023.105066
Eastwood, J., & Maitland-Scott, I. (2020). Patient Privacy and Integrated Care: The Multidisciplinary Health Care Team. International Journal of Integrated Care, 20(4). https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.5591
Elkhaili El Alami, L. S., Nemoto, A., & Nakata, Y. (2020). General patients’ expectations on online accessibility to their electronic health records in Japan. Global Health & Medicine, 2(3), 168–173. https://doi.org/10.35772/ghm.2020.01014
Fahlberg, B. (2014). Promoting patient dignity in nursing care. Nursing, 44(7), 14. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.nurse.0000450788.72731.82
Fuseini, A., Rawson, H., Ley, L., & Kerr, D. (2022). Patient dignity and dignified care: A qualitative description of hospitalised older adults perspectives. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 32(7-8). https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.16286
Hasan Tehrani, T., Seyed Bagher Maddah, S., Fallahi-Khoshknab, M., Ebadi, A., Mohammadi Shahboulaghi, F., & Gillespie, M. (2018). Respecting the privacy of hospitalized patients: An integrative review. Nursing Ethics, 096973301875983. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733018759832
Lott, B. E., Campos-Castillo, C., & L Anthony, D. (2020). Trust and privacy: How patient trust in providers is related to privacy behaviors and attitudes. AMIA … Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium, 2019, 487–493.
Mishkin, A. D., Zabinski, J. S., Holt, G., & Appelbaum, P. S. (2022). Ensuring Privacy in telemedicine: Ethical and Clinical Challenges. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 29(3), 1357633X2211349. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357633×221134952
Petersen, C. (2018). Through Patients’ Eyes: Regulation, Technology, Privacy, and the Future. Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 27(01), 010–015. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0038-1641193
Pool, J. K., Akhlaghpour, S., Fatehi, F., & Burton‐Jones, A. (2024). A systematic analysis of failures in protecting personal health data: A scoping review. International Journal of Information Management, 74(102719), 102719–102719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2023.102719
Tarun Vats, Kumar, S., Singh, S. K., Madan, U., Mehak Preet, Arya, V., Bansal, R., & Ammar Almomani. (2024). Navigating the Landscape: Safeguarding Privacy and Security in the Era of Ambient Intelligence within Healthcare Settings. Cyber Security and Applications, 100046–100046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csa.2024.100046

Good Practice Guide for Patient/Client Privacy