You are here: Home / Archives for HIPAA

Providing Speech Privacy and Confidentiality

October 6, 2011 By

Safeguarding Private Information by All Reasonable Means Available

What does it mean to protect information in today’s marketplace? We think about firewalls to guard digital information and locked cabinets to store printed records, but often overlook the necessity of safe-guarding conversations. Speech privacy is the act of protecting private information passed through verbal communication. While this is easier when there are walls and closed doors, in open office plans and reception areas this is most effectively done through the use of sound masking technology. Here are some of the compelling situations needing speech privacy:

Business Clients

Whether on the phone or in person, many businesses communicate sensitive information about their clients on a daily basis. This requires utmost diligence by the business or organization to protect this personal and sensitive information. Financial, personal, and medical privacy is strictly regulated by law. These laws govern printed information, network security for digital data storage, and even the verbal communication of private information.

Trade Secrets

In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, businesses exert significant care to protect  company specific information that provides an advantage over its competitors, whether about a product, a process, or even a compilation of information. Almost every industry, from finance to medicine or manufacturing to social services, is compelled to use all reasonable means available to protect company information.

Medical Facilities

A 2005 study at Johns Hopkins University found that hospital noise increased by almost 30 percent and these levels have continued to climb since. While this obviously creates an uncomfortable experience for patients, even more importantly are the HIPAA compliance problems that accompany a noisy facility.

Eliminating Eavesdropping

Companies go to great lengths to secure the digital transmission and storage of information. But the further step of achieving voice privacy in the work place is essential. The Regus Group found in a recent study that that 59% of business professional had eavesdropped on other people’s conversations, and that 19% used the information they overheard.

The current trends of open office space and mass communication can help build better collaboration, but also allows for deliberate or accidental eavesdropping. It is imperative that managers find cost-effective means to safeguard sensitive conversations in the workplace. Today’s sound masking technology can provide better speech privacy at affordable prices.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , , , ,

Sound Masking for Medical Facilities

May 17, 2011 By

Very Un-Private Care

Have you ever been to a doctor’s office and felt like your entire history was on display for others?  Whether it was the kinds of questions you had to answer at the reception desk or just that the walls were paper thin and all that should have been private just wasn’t.  The fact of the matter is that no one is trying to listen to all your medical woes and concerns, or even your good news.  However, it’s hard to ignore what’s going on in a doctor’s office or waiting room if certain measures aren’t taken.  It may seem that these confidentiality leaks are an inevitable part of of medical care, but after 5 years of taking my own children in and out of well and sick baby checks, as well as my own pregnancy visits, here are my tips for better protection.

Tips for Privacy in Medical Facilities

  • Close exam room doors when patients are inside them.  This will protect patient’s own experiences as they talk with doctors and will simultaneously protect them from outside conversations, or noises in the case of my son.
  • Close off the waiting room from the exam rooms, if possible.  The doors are there for a reason.  Most people with children in the waiting room have sick kids who are quite miserable, which usually equates to a whole lot of loud crying, which can really freak out waiting children.
  • Practice common courtesy in discussing a patient’s concerns in front of other patients.  Most do not want their medical histories or concerns aired out in front of a captive audience.  Wait until you are behind closed doors.
  • Install sound masking.  It’s a simple application of white noise that will ensure privacy for all involved.  Sound masking is by far the most effective means of improving speech privacy.

So, if you’re a doctor or medical professional, please respect your patients’ rights to privacy.  It may not seem like a big deal to you, but their visits are very involve personal details, and most would like to keep them private by means of sound masking and courteous care.

 

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , ,

Dear Doctor: Please Respect My Privacy…Love, Your Patient

May 12, 2010 By

An Open Clinic does mean open…

This morning I took my son in to a well baby clinic.  Due to the nature of an open clinic, we did not a specific appointment time and therefore had to wait for half an hour.  I would welcome 30 minutes with nothing do without children.  However, throw in a 3 1/2 year old and a just turned 2 year old, and I was all over the place trying to keep up with them.  They weren’t being disobedient per se (emphasis on per se), just louder than the other patients cared for, I would guess.  As I chased my son down the hall I was about to banish him from, I noticed several open exam rooms.  I also noticed that the door blocking off access to that hall was also ajar.  Lastly, I couldn’t help but notice a nurse ssshhhing my children as they rushed by.  Partly embarrassed at being that mother (the one who lets her kids run all over the place {subtext: but in a culture where popping with a wooden spoon is more than frowned upon, I’m not totally sure what they expect???} and partly annoyed at someone else telling my kids what to do in an unprotected environment (shut the doors!), I managed to keep my mouth shut.  They’re welcome.

When I go to the doctor, I want to feel taken care of, not publicly displayed.

HIPAA anyone?

Finally, we were called in.  A 30 minute wait for a 2-minute weigh-in.  As I was discussing our next real appointment, the nurse loudly said, “Oh yes, because you had some serious concerns about your son’s development last time…”  Can I remind everyone that this was an OPEN clinic, so her remark was not only heard by my incredibly verbal and prone to repeat what she hears 3 year old, but also by several other adults and their children.  I was mortified.  I did not want that repeated publicly, much less in front of his older sister who wouldn’t mean anything by it, but would most certainly repeat it at an inopportune time.

So, I walked away rather defeated, wondering how all of that could have been avoided. Let’s start with me: I will talk with my children beforehand next time about what is and is not appropriate in a doctor’s office (and waiting room).  Here are my thoughts for the rest of the breach of privacy and confidentiality:

Tips for Privacy in Medical Facilities

  • Close exam room doors when patients are inside them.  This will protect patient’s own experiences as they talk with doctors and will simultaneously protect them from outside conversations, or noises in the case of my son.
  • Close off the waiting room from the exam rooms, if possible.  The doors are there for a reason.  Most people with children in the waiting room have sick kids who are quite miserable, which usually equates to a whole lot of loud crying.  Or, in my case, I had well children who wanted to play.
  • Practice common courtesy in discussing a patient’s concerns in front of other patients.  Most do not want their medical histories or concerns aired out in front of a captive audience.
  • Install sound masking.  It’s a simple application of white noise that will ensure privacy for all involved.

So, if you’re a doctor or medical professional, please respect our right to privacy.  It may not seem like a big deal to you, but these are our personal details, and we’d like to keep them private.  If you can’t, we’ll be forced to break up.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , ,

Who is listening?

January 29, 2010 By

I once was in a doctor’s office for a normal prenatal check-up.  I was horrified, however, when I heard the nurse’s answer on a telephone call she received right outside my door.  Not only was I surprised to realize I could hear her, I was surprised that there was a phenomenon, previously unknown to me, I might suffer from after delivering a child.  I was a little overwhelmed with mental images and got a little dizzy.  I was mere weeks away from delivering.

What are other people hearing?

In that specific situation, I was hit with the stark reality that medical (and what I always assumed was private) information obtained on the phone or in the office is not at all private.  When I pour my postnatal hormonal feelings out in my doctor’s office, I want the comfort on knowing she was the only one who heard me.  I don’t want to look over my shoulder, wondering if anyone in the waiting room or adjacent office heard me.

HIPAA is in place to safeguard such information, but it doesn’t force doctors to implement any acoustic treatments like sound masking to further guard our medical records.  However, I love my doctor and would like to keep seeing her.  I just wish she would value me as much as I value her.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , , , ,