MFAs do not provide any information about findings on the phone? Efforts to protect data should also extend to patients on site. Our author witnessed the entire waiting room learning about her sensitive information, multiple times and for note taking.
Recently in a medical center in downtown Hamburg: I ended up here because my usual practice has lost two doctors, but I am urgently looking for antibiotics. Because after a sleepless night with sensory disturbances on the right leg and the fading red flapping, which only gives a hint of a red border after weeks, it dawns on me that the strange insect bite from the previous month was more of a bite after all…
Name, date of birth, diagnosis for everyone to listen to
The reception desk of the medical center protrudes into the waiting area, almost like a plenary session. In this way, those waiting can follow at least within a five-meter radius, which is why the other patients are arriving here. My first visit was unspectacular. The tetracycline is quickly prescribed, and an antibody test is ordered to confirm the diagnosis. “We do not provide any information on the phone,” said the medical assistant (MFA). “So you have to come back.” In order to avoid unnecessary trips, I find myself again a week later. At the counter it turns out that the result is not there yet. “Please sit down,” the MFA prompts me. While two middle-aged male patients are standing in front of her, she calls after the result: “Hello, it’s about Barbara Buchholz. beech wood. No, buuuuch-holz,” she explains with increasing volume until those waiting in the back seats can hear it. “Born on 12/18/1977. Because of Lyme disease.” The first caller on the phone doesn’t know anything, so the MFA makes another call and repeats the data at full volume: “Buch-holz. 12/18/1977. Because of Bo-rre-lioooose.”
Now is one Lyme disease although not syphilis. However, it is liable to the blemish of a possible massive drop in performance. In the middle of downtown Hamburg, surrounded by several publishing houses within walking distance, it would be quite possible for a person from my journalistic work environment to be sitting in the waiting room and playing the questionable diagnosis on the office hallway radio. The MFA finally calls me to her. Something undefined had happened to the tube, blood had to be drawn again. The bottom line: Yes, it’s Lyme disease. I’m not allowed to speak to the doctor again. The MFA knocks on their door with my findings and comes back shortly afterwards. In the middle of the waiting area, in front of the other patients, she calls me to her: “You’ll get antibiotics again. Do you prefer the 100 dose or the 200 doses?”
Intelligent room layout makes data protection possible
Not only the doctor, but also employees of a medical practice are subject to the confidentiality. In this case, this was obviously grossly disregarded several times. Due to the crescent-shaped structure of the reception area with four running computer screens, it cannot be ruled out that third parties with good eyes can read further data there. The reception area is one typical weakness in data protection in medical practicesbut there are solutions.
The MFA in this medical center are in a difficult situation due to the room layout, or rather the lack of such a layout. Ideally, a soundproof door should separate the waiting area from reception. If this is not possible, solid room dividers should be used. This also has the advantage that impatient patients do not constantly address the staff from the side: “When will it be my turn, I have a stomach ache?!” In parting, she sympathetically wished me a speedy recovery. It was written all over her face that she felt uncomfortable.
Barbara Buchholz (Pseudonym)