Yearly, health professionals and students complete a HIPAA certification to ensure they are competent with the processes and procedures in protecting patients and their healthcare information. Maintaining patient confidentiality is of utmost priority and it is a rare occurrence to compromise that confidentiality without written consent. The case presented above provides a dilemma in which a patient expresses thoughts alluding to impending self-harm to their audiologist – what are the most appropriate ethical and legal steps the audiologist can do to help this patient?
In this case study, it would be both an ethical and legal violation to not act on the information received from the patient. Staying calm, being nonjudgmental, and expressing
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Although it acts to protect privacy and maintain trust between physicians and their patients, there are exceptions if the patient stands as a threat to themselves or someone else. Principle 3 of the AAA Code of Ethics states, “…Individuals (In this case, the audiologist) shall not reveal to unauthorized persons any professional or personal information obtained from the person served professionally unless required by law”(2016). In this case, ‘the law’ refers to the Privacy Rule 45 CFR § 164.512(j) of HIPAA. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this rule “allows healthcare professionals to release information about a patient to law enforcements, family members of the patient, or other persons who may reasonably be able to prevent or lessen the risk of harm, when the providers believe the patient presents a serious and imminent threat to self or others…” (2017). Based on the legal and ethical laws, it is imperative for the healthcare professional to act given that the patient may be in harm’s way. However, the law also states that the knowledge to act is based on the clinician’s best