Problem
Patients & Data Privacy
Dr. Mylene Figuero entered one of her examination rooms to see her next patient, a man in his mid-fifties, sitting waiting for her. As she sat down in front of the computer showing his electronic health record (EHR), she recognized the patient as a famous former football player. She asked what brought him in today, and in response, the patient immediately launched into a description of his issues. He had recently been experiencing confusion and having difficulty focusing.
As Dr. Figuero began to type the information into dlC EHR, the patient became more reluctant to talk freely about his situation. She prompted him to continue, but the man dammed up, telling her that he had just not been sleeping well and that he had to leave. Dr. Figuero was worried that the patient was withholding information about his mental health, and she thought that his symptoms, combined with his history as a football player, hinted at Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Figuero had seen this type of behavior before, and she thought it had become more common among her patients since she switched from paper charts to the electronic record. She worried that patients might be concerned about the privacy of their health information once it was available in the digital world. Indeed, she had just read an article about an EHR system that had been hacked at a nearby hospital. She felt confident that her own EHR system was safe, because she had purposefully chosen a platform with two-factor authentication and added security features. Still, she suspected that patients might not trust that the system was secure, and she wondered how their concerns over the privacy of sensitive health information might change their interactions with their doctors.
Source: McAlearney A, Kovner A, editors. "Health Services Management: a case study approach." 11th ed. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press; 2018 - Case 61, p.403
Task
a) Why might the patient's withholding of information concern Dr. Figuero?
b) Why might the patient withhold information in the first place?