Pharmacy Law
| Pharmacy Law | Patient Confidentiality | | Chaukeisia Roney | 10/24/2012 |
Pharmacy Technology – Thursday Evening
HIPPA Privacy Law and Patients’ Bill of Rights are supposed to protect an individual privacy when it comes to their medical information. These laws were created and put into place to establish patient confidentiality and not have patients’ information disclosed without prior consent. In 1998, Dawn Castellano, a pharmacy technician who worked for Arbor Drugs in Mount Clemens, Michigan, violated a patient’s confidentiality by disclosing information to her son regarding one of her customers. The pharmacy technician was filling a prescription for AIDS medication and discovers the customer was a parent of her son classmates. The technician informed her child of the customer condition and later her son taunted his classmates about their father disease. The customer children had no prior knowledge of the disease.
The pharmacy technician violated the HIPPA laws and Michigan Medical Confidentiality Law when she disclosed the patient’s personal information. Anything obtaining to a patient’s medical record is private and this includes prescriptions as well. Regardless if the technician knew of the patient or not, it was not for her to pass this information on to anyone. The customer filed a lawsuit against Arbor Drugs and the pharmacy technician for breach of privacy because the technician disclosed his personal information without his consent. Arbor Drugs and the customer ended up reaching a settlement. Prior to this incident, Arbor Drug had no written policy about patient confidentiality.
This lawsuit and several like it, help establish the Patient’s Bill of Rights. This law created by former President Bill Clinton. The Patient Bill of Rights highlights four important rights for patients. The first right, is guaranteed access to health care providers. The second right, ensures that the patient has access to quality and affordable care.
Pharmacy Technology – Thursday Evening
HIPPA Privacy Law and Patients’ Bill of Rights are supposed to protect an individual privacy when it comes to their medical information. These laws were created and put into place to establish patient confidentiality and not have patients’ information disclosed without prior consent. In 1998, Dawn Castellano, a pharmacy technician who worked for Arbor Drugs in Mount Clemens, Michigan, violated a patient’s confidentiality by disclosing information to her son regarding one of her customers. The pharmacy technician was filling a prescription for AIDS medication and discovers the customer was a parent of her son classmates. The technician informed her child of the customer condition and later her son taunted his classmates about their father disease. The customer children had no prior knowledge of the disease.
The pharmacy technician violated the HIPPA laws and Michigan Medical Confidentiality Law when she disclosed the patient’s personal information. Anything obtaining to a patient’s medical record is private and this includes prescriptions as well. Regardless if the technician knew of the patient or not, it was not for her to pass this information on to anyone. The customer filed a lawsuit against Arbor Drugs and the pharmacy technician for breach of privacy because the technician disclosed his personal information without his consent. Arbor Drugs and the customer ended up reaching a settlement. Prior to this incident, Arbor Drug had no written policy about patient confidentiality.
This lawsuit and several like it, help establish the Patient’s Bill of Rights. This law created by former President Bill Clinton. The Patient Bill of Rights highlights four important rights for patients. The first right, is guaranteed access to health care providers. The second right, ensures that the patient has access to quality and affordable care.
References: Sullivan, Patrick T. “Patients. Doctors unhappy with pseudoephedrine prescription requirement” October 7, 2011. Retrieved from http://www.semissourian.com/story/1771366.html “Federal Pseudoephedrine Law” Retrieved from http://www.doh.state.fl.us/mqa/pharmacy/info_federallaw.pdf October 24, 2012 “HIPPA Information Privacy” Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/index.html October 19, 2012 “Man with AIDS Claim Clerk Disclosed Illness” (January 8, 1998). Retrieved from http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=19980108&id=XKQaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fC4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6807,2747241 October 19, 2012 “The White House at Work”. . Retrieved from http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/hcquality/press/pbor.html October 19, 2012