I think I've fucked up at work.

[RainbowBriteUk]

I work in healthcare and my job involves taking with clients a lot.

Today I rang someone, said I was calling from organisation name and asked to speak to (clients name). I thought it was the client who I've spoke to a few times but it wasn't, the person who answered (landline) said he was out. Because I said the organisation name I've fucked up, haven't I? We cater people who have a few conditions and the person who answered might not know client has these conditions. Our org name doesn't include anything to do with the conditions but all it would take would be a quick Google of our org name. Fuck fuck fuck!

@DerAlteMann

Hold on. If there's a website saying what field your organisation works in, then it's surely not THAT confidential?

you're missing the point.

I received a call from a rehab centre asking for a family member. I had not been told this person had been in there, and that was how I found out. This kind of thing could cause all kinds of mess for the person or people involved, which is why the protocol is generally not to say who is calling when it's something sensitive like this.

Honestly, as a Manager in a specialist health care setting it stands out how concerned you are about this. If you weren't concerned I would question your commitment and understanding. Mistakes happen and it is not something you will ever do again. Lesson learnt and don't be too hard on yourself.

You should report it asap as a potential data breach. Your organisation should have a policy for handling these. I wouldn't think you'd be sacked or anything like that but they might make you do training or other mitigations to avoid it happening again. I work in data protection and I think the people saying it's not a breach or to ignore it/not say anything are wrong. This will look worse and I would think most orgs have a policy to report as the idea is to mitigate harm to the data subject and improve procedures etc.

TBH if someone called for my DM and I had to pass a message on, I'd prefer to know exactly who was calling and from what organisation. There would be no way I wouldn't know about any condition she had as she lives with us.

If you were calling from a women’s aid/ refuge organisation for instance and accidentally revealed yourself to the potential abuser then I can understand why you would be feeling extremely worried. As others have said, best to be open and tell your manager so any damage can be limited.

Thanks all for your replies. I reckon this has probably happened before. We're a busy office of about 10 employees in our dept so someone else may have made this mistake.

My company are really hot on policies. I'm so mad with myself!!!

This is a breach of patient confidentiality if you work in healthcare.

If I am calling a patient I will say 'is this x'?' If they say yes then I will introduce my self and say I'm calling from the hospital, could they confirm their date or birth or address. Once that's done then I can proceed with the call. I was always taught you cannot say the organisation name if its a clinic or the department if its a hospital

If people are vague or wary with giving me their name it's a bit frustrating but I will be vague back so I might say I'm calling from the hospital but not say the department.

The thing is if it's not who you want then yes it's probably their partner who probably knows. But you don't know that. For all you know it could be the plumber who's picked up the phone. And even if it's their daughter that person has no right to know anything about their parents health. You shouldn't let that person know that their mother is even a patient of yours. Its irrelevant whether it's the herpes clinic or the hygienist calling about a scale and polish.

It's probably fine OP, it was probably their partner who probably knew. But you need to tell your line manager and then you need to tell the person this has happened. I doubt anything will come of it and the patient will probably think it's a silly fuss over nothing but it's what you should do.

If you tell your line manager now they will most likely think it's a silly mistake, but if you brush it under the carpet and it does come to light that's when things start to look bad. I also think that as a company you need more training in patient confidentiality if you are doing these phone calls, and a refresh of your duty of candour.

Sorry that was a really long post but there's a lot of misinformation on this thread!

@CarrotSticks23 Thank you for your advice.

I think you are fine.
You could just have easily been a telemarketing call.
e.g. Hi this is Rainbow calling from XYZ insurance co.

You did not say can I speak to Pt A regarding her diagnosis of ABC which would be a disclosure.

I run a GP surgery and we never say our surgery name - we just say, "calling from the GP surgery".

You also would not be sacked for 1 offence either - totally disproportionate.
Own up and tell employer though and explain you did not mention health condition associated with pt and neither did you say they were a client of your organisation. Technically no breach but honesty is the best policy.