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.