Integrated Medical Education Resources: B.) WORKSHOP DISCUSSION CASES

GROUP #1 (CASES ON PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY)

Case #1: A patient with diastolic blood pressure of 120 mmHg failed to return to the Health Center for treatment. The nurse called the head of the village and asked him to convince the patient to come. In order to press on him the urgency of the matter, she had to explain all the details of the history and examination that had been carried out on the patient.

Case #2: A clerk in the records department casually mentioned impotence of a patient to his friends at the village restaurant. Word spread quickly around the village resulting in cancellation of the patient’s engagement. The fiancée sued in court and the patient committed suicide. The clerk felt no remorse. He argued that he was doing a public duty by stopping a potentially unhappy marriage.

Case #3: A neurologist informed his wife over dinner about an elderly school bus driver who had Parkinson disease and had to take an unusually high dose of medication to suppress the tremors. The medication made the patient sleepy all day. The wife asked for the name and realized that the patient was a driver for her school transport company who had been coming to work late in the past 2 weeks. She dismissed him the next morning.