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Confidentiality and the telephone in family practice: a qualitative study of the views of patients, clinicians and administrative staff

Confidentiality and the telephone in family practice: a qualitative study of the views of... Background. Confidentiality is considered a cornerstone of the medical consultation. However, the telephone, previously used mainly to negotiate appointments, has become increasingly employed as a means of consultation and may pose new problems in respect to maintaining confidentiality.Objective. As part of a qualitative investigation into the views of patients, doctors, nurses and administrative staff on the use of telephone consulting in general practice, we set out to explore the impact of the use of this medium on perceptions of confidentiality.Method. We used focus groups of purposively selected patients, clinicians and administrative staff in urban and rural areas.Results. Fifteen focus groups comprising 91 individuals were convened. Participants concerns centred on overheard conversations, the receptionist role in triage, difficulty of maintaining confidentiality in small close-knit communities, errors in identification, third party conversations and answering machines. Telephone consulting, depending on the circumstances, could pose a risk or offer a solution to maintaining confidentiality.Conclusions. Many of the concerns that patients and health care staff have around confidentiality breaches both on the telephone and face to face are amenable to careful management. Although rare, identification error or fraud can be a potentially serious problem and further thought needs to be given to the problem of misidentification on the telephone and the use of passwords considered. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Family Practice Oxford University Press

Confidentiality and the telephone in family practice: a qualitative study of the views of patients, clinicians and administrative staff

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References (19)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.
ISSN
0263-2136
eISSN
1460-2229
DOI
10.1093/fampra/cmp032
pmid
19497987
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Background. Confidentiality is considered a cornerstone of the medical consultation. However, the telephone, previously used mainly to negotiate appointments, has become increasingly employed as a means of consultation and may pose new problems in respect to maintaining confidentiality.Objective. As part of a qualitative investigation into the views of patients, doctors, nurses and administrative staff on the use of telephone consulting in general practice, we set out to explore the impact of the use of this medium on perceptions of confidentiality.Method. We used focus groups of purposively selected patients, clinicians and administrative staff in urban and rural areas.Results. Fifteen focus groups comprising 91 individuals were convened. Participants concerns centred on overheard conversations, the receptionist role in triage, difficulty of maintaining confidentiality in small close-knit communities, errors in identification, third party conversations and answering machines. Telephone consulting, depending on the circumstances, could pose a risk or offer a solution to maintaining confidentiality.Conclusions. Many of the concerns that patients and health care staff have around confidentiality breaches both on the telephone and face to face are amenable to careful management. Although rare, identification error or fraud can be a potentially serious problem and further thought needs to be given to the problem of misidentification on the telephone and the use of passwords considered.

Journal

Family PracticeOxford University Press

Published: Jun 4, 2009

Keywords: Access confidentiality evaluation health care quality physician–patient relations telephone consulting

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