Introduction to Public Health Case Study
Case study report
Scenario
Sarah is a health information management (HIM) student completing a clinical practice rotation (internship) in an acute care hospital in her community. This week she is learning about the release-of-information process. At the breakfast table, Sarah’s mother asks her to find out what is wrong with Noor, their next-door neighbor. Noor has been admitted to the hospital twice in the last three months, and Sarah’s mother wants to know why. While processing the requests for release of information that afternoon, Sarah comes across one from Noor’s insurance company. Sarah learns that Noor was hospitalized due to physical abuse by her husband. Sarah has been in trouble with her mother recently. She knows that if she tells her mother this information she will score “big points” she is very tempted to tell her mother the information she has learned. Introduction to Public Health Case Study
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Later that same day while responding to another request for information, Sarah realizes that the medical record she is reviewing belongs to Ali, her best friend’s fiancé. Sarah learns that Ali has a drug abuse problem and was recently diagnosed with HIV. Sarah will be the maid of honor at the wedding of Ali and Reem two months from now, and she knows that Reem does not know about Ali’s problems. Sarah becomes worried and wonders whether she should tell her best friend what she has learned because Ali’s conditions could affect Reem’s health and the quality of her married life.
Questions
- Does Sarah have the right to reveal this information to others? Please justify your answer based on what you know about public health and ethics.
- In the situation regarding Sarah’s friend Reem and her fiancé Ali, would Sarah be more justified in revealing patient information than in the situation regarding the next-door neighbor? Why or why not? What if Reem was her sister?
- Why are privacy and confidentiality so important to patients who receive care and to those who provide care? Does this contradict the mission of medical care and health care organizations’ values, when social interests and the interests of individuals come into conflict?
Introduction to Public Health Case Study
