Question

1. A public health employee has signed a confidentiality agreement that incorporates a need-to-know provision and prohibits re-disclosure of any information to which she gains access within her public health organization’s systems. The agreement’s term of enforcement is indefinite. Discuss the applicability of this agreement regarding the following situations, assuming the information she has accessed is relevant to a project she is working on. (10 points, 2 points each)

1. The employee discusses individual information she obtains with a colleague working on the same project.
2. The direct supervisor of the employee asks her/him to reveal the individual to a medical director of the organization.
3. At lunch, the employee reveals the individual’s information to a friend working in a commercial enterprise not affiliated with the public health organization.
4. During a weekend trip, the employee discusses the individual information with her husband.
5. After the employee leaves this job, she starts her own business and discusses the individual information with her best customers.

Answer 1

Answer: Sharing or disclosure of patient information must follow the rules laid by state or federal government. There must be due care taken while sharing the information and all the records of information sharing must be maintained.

We will discuss what to do in following scenarios:

a.    The employee discusses individual information she obtains with a colleague working on the same project: Yes she can share if it is required to be shared for treatment decision or and that person is authorized to receive such information but if this is not the case in that case it would be treated as violation of non-disclosure agreement.

b.    The direct supervisor of the employee asks her/him to reveal the individual to a medical director of the organization.

In this case direct supervisor is giving order in writing to share the information then she can share the information and it won’t be the violation of the agreement of information non-disclosure.

c.    At lunch, the employee reveals the individual’s information to a friend working in a commercial enterprise not affiliated with the public health organization.

It would be treated as breach of agreement since she is not supposed to share information with anyone who is not authorized to gain access to such information, and it is not allowed as per state and federal law.

d.    During a weekend trip, the employee discusses the individual information with her husband.

It would also be treated as breach of agreement since she is not supposed to share information with anyone even if the person is her husband, who is not authorized to gain access to such information, and it is not allowed as per state and federal law. It may look like that her husband will not share the information or health care authority may not come to know that she had shared such information with her husband but still it is against professional ethics.

e.    After the employee leaves this job, she starts her own business and discusses the individual information with her best customers.

Even under such condition the employment contract is also clear on this you can not share any information which you would have gained during the employment, to any one in such scenario a legal case can be lodged against her.