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Physician's Guide to Medicine - Confidential/Priveleged Information
What information is confidential under the
physician-patient privilege?
Can a physician be liable for breach of confidentiality
for discussing the treatment of a patient who is a plaintiff in a lawsuit?
What are other circumstances where the physician-patient
privilege may be waived?
What information is confidential under the physician-patient privilege?
Any information that a physician acquires from a patient
while in a professional capacity is considered privileged between the physician
and patient.
Can a physician be liable for breach of confidentiality for discussing the
treatment of a patient who is a plaintiff in a lawsuit?
Once a plaintiff´s (patient´s) medical condition is
put in the lawsuit, there is no longer a physician-patient privilege for that
treatment. Private contacts with attorneys are proper, as long as the physician
and defense attorney confine their conversation about the patient to the medical
issues raised in the lawsuit.
To avoid the pitfalls of a breach of confidentiality in private discussions with
defense counsel, remember:
(1) As a physician, you may not disclose medical information without the
patient´s consent;
(2) However, the patient´s consent is waived in a personal injury or medical
malpractice lawsuit;
(3) As a physician, your treatment of the patient must be relevant to the
lawsuit; and
(4) As a physician, you may conduct private interviews with defense counsel as
long as you consent to the meeting, and the conversation is confined to the
scope of the medical issues raised in the lawsuit.
What are other circumstances where the physician-patient privilege may be
waived?
The physician-patient privilege is deemed waived in
any investigation, hearing or other proceeding to determine a physician´s
fitness to practice medicine. Any record relating to any patient of the
physician is discoverable by the State Board of Registration for the Healing
Arts and admissible into evidence, regardless of any legal privilege that may
exist.
Also, information communicated to a physician in an effort to illegally procure
a controlled substance, or the unlawful administration of a controlled
substance, is not a privileged communication.
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