Abstract
Background and Objective:Maintaining privacy and ensuring confidentiality with patients is paramount to developing an effective patient-provider relationship. This is often challenging in over-crowded Emergency Departments (EDs). This survey was designed to explore patients’ perceptions on maintenance of privacy and confidentiality and their subsequent interactions with providers in a busy tertiary care hospital in Karachi.Methods:Trained nursing staff conducted structured interviews with 571 patients who presented to The Indus Hospital (TIH) ED from January to December 2020. All patients were 14 years of age or older, could speak and understand Urdu, and provide informed consent. Patients were asked about their perceptions of privacy and confidentiality in the ED and whether this affected their interactions with providers.Results:Respondents were primarily men (64%) under the age of 45 (62%) presenting for the first time (49%). The majority of patients felt that privacy and confidentiality were maintained, however 10% of patients reported that they had rejected examination due to privacy concerns and 15% of patients reported that they had changed or omitted information provided to a provider due to confidentiality concerns. There was correlation between privacy and confidentiality concerns and patient-provider interactions (p<0.0001).Conclusions:Despite the often over-crowded and busy environment of the ED, patients generally felt that privacy and confidentiality were maintained. Given the correlation between perception and behavior and the importance of an effective patient-provider relationship, particularly in the acute setting when morbidity and mortality is high, initiatives that focus on maintaining privacy and confidentiality should be pursued.
Highlights
The concept of privacy emphasizes the individuality of a person and concerns a human being’s decision to deny or grant access to self and individual behaviors, opinions, and attitudes; to personal or identifying information; and to private property or territory
The responsibility lies with Emergency Departments (EDs) providers to be sensitive to issues concerning privacy and confidentiality in order to establish an effective patient-physician relationship, to foster an environment where patients can disclose sensitive and essential information, and be able to detect and manage acute illness and injury that might otherwise result in high morbidity or mortality.[7,8,9,10]
We first evaluated patient’s perceptions of confidentiality overall. 54% of patients “Agreed” or “Strongly Agreed” that the confidentiality of their medical information was properly maintained (Fig.1A), and 55% “Agreed” or “Strongly Agreed” that patient information was not kept open in front of other patients
Summary
The concept of privacy emphasizes the individuality of a person and concerns a human being’s decision to deny or grant access to self and individual behaviors, opinions, and attitudes; to personal or identifying information; and to private property or territory. Privacy includes physical seclusion, protection of personal information, protection of identity, and the ability to make choices without interference. Maintaining privacy and ensuring confidentiality with patients is paramount to developing an effective patient-provider relationship. This is often challenging in over-crowded Emergency Departments (EDs). Given the correlation between perception and behavior and the importance of an effective patient-provider relationship, in the acute setting when morbidity and mortality is high, initiatives that focus on maintaining privacy and confidentiality should be pursued
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
