Medical records confidentialty

[ConfidentialityNotGuaranteed]

I was to have a medication review by a pharmacist carried out recently which is fine, I have no problem with this.

But when I asked for confirmation of the time when the Pharmacist would call me, the receptionist casually informed me that she wasn't sure because he (the pharmacist) was working from home.

AIBU to be horrified that my medical records are being accessed remotely with, apparently, no safeguards to guarantee confidentiality?

I am a hospital consultant who works from home one day. I call patients for phone appts. I wouldn’t let anyone into my room. My family members may knock but if I don’t answer then they will not enter. We have many passwords to access the electronic patient records. We have information governance training annually which covers all you are worried about. I hope that reassures you.

Thanks for the responses so far.

To respond to posters who comment on safeguards , the receptionist said they have no idea where the pharmacist was or the set up at home. Of course they use secure IT connections - I am aware of these. I use them myself in my line of work.

But from the consultation aspect, being questioned about my conditions etc remotely is what bothers me most. I do not like to discuss them at the best of times, least of all to a complete stranger at the end of the phone, calling me from who knows where.

I am well aware that no-one else is remotely interested my mixed bag of health conditions.

I am clearly just a bit sensitive about this and am being unreasonable.

I'm another one who regularly works from home and my home set up is far more private and secure than my NHS shared office where people from other departments are wandering by. I’ve signed an agreement about my wfh and it includes things like having a separate workspace, not having things like Alexa in the room etc. etc. I would love to have my own office at work but who is going to fund that? We do lots of mandatory training on information governance, confidentiality etc. etc. and it applies to any workplace. As you’ve seen on this thread doctors, psychiatrists, genetic counsellors, pharmacists all work from home at times (and some I know aren’t even in the uk!) so you are being very unreasonable.

Yes this would be my concern.

Not about information being accessed at home because I can do this in my remote server.

But I wouldn't want auntie Mabel who's popped over for tea with DH to be listening in!

But you would hope they have secure policies in place. I know I access my remote sever with ds in the house and him his for his work. But we have never been in the room with each other or left laptops/ computers unattended and his boss knows I don't wfh if they have online meetings during the day.

The one day I was ill and off work he emailed his boss beforehand to inform him and offer him the chance to rearrange if he didn't want me in the house whilst it happened.

do you honestly think members of the household are going to be lurking outside the door listening in in the vague hope that they may learn a bit of gossip about Jeff down the road?

of course safeguards are in place

if all medical professionals had to be in a professional working environments at all times whilst speaking to patients the nhs would be in a worse state than it already is

yabu

When in the office we used screens and if anyone without the same permissions was in the room we would not have open conversations.

WFH we all have safeguarding, confidentiality, GDPR, agile working training etc.
We all have secure systems to use, and laptops that needs tight security.

No one has checked my home set up.
No one checks whether anyone else is in my home.

I see and hear other peoples set ups when I am on TEAMS or when out in the community, and I do not think you ABU to be concerned. If you are really anxious you may have to bite the bullet and ask if they are alone, are they wearing headphones etc.

I assume loads of healthcare workers work from home if they are doing phone or virtual appointments. They will have done this during the pandemic and probably continued just like the vast majority of other professions, which is perfectly reasonable IMO.

Having said that, I have been stunned by the amount of medical information I have overheard sitting in a waiting room either at the GP or Hospital.

I imagine most people working from home deal with confidential information. My financial information, my travel bookings, etc are all confidential and all dealt with by people working at home.

Thanks all for your comments.

I have taken them on board and concede I am clearly being unreasonable.

I won't be returning to the thread.

Have a lovely day.

@ConfidentialityNotGuaranteed I’m actually surprised more people aren’t concerned by this, and not just regarding medical concerns. I’ve spoken to insurance people at home, for example and I know accountants who work at home.

Pre-covid, this wouldn’t have been a thing and the only time doctors had medical records outside the surgery was to go on a house visit. However, now, doctors, pharmacists etc all work from home.

Yes, the computers do have a password entry system, and all access to records can be monitored and audited. However, who’s not to say that Mrs Pharmacist accidentally saw the medical records of their daughter’s teacher as she brought him a cup of tea.

i don’t think you are being reasonable at all, and in a world where GDPR seems to a big influence on people’s lives, I’m surprised it’s not a greater issue.

My sons children's hospital main consultant works from home all the time. Never thought of it before. I fet funny in the chemist the other day getting my sons prescription as it was packed and I gave and spelt out his full name, then was asked what I was collecting so named his medication, then when they brought it to me I was asked and gave our address. And everyone in there was doing that. It felt so wrong knowing that Kim White who lives at 44 Hunt Avenue was collecting her depression medication (name and address obviously not real but she was getting depression medication).

Why do you think there are no safeguards in place? I work from home occasionally (I work in healthcare). I only do ‘patient reports/notes/ phonecalls’ when there is no one else in the house. No one can hear me and no one can look over my shoulder onto a patient record. Anyone that accesses a patient record is traceable and access can be blocked immediately if there are ‘issues.’ All records are accessed and logged off after the contact as they would be if they were sat at work.

If you are worried ask the question?

I'm gonna hazard a guess that he isn't working from his local Costa.

It's fine.

I have actually seen someone working with confidential information in a Morrisons cafe, and could hear their conversations. Plenty of people set up their computer and work in cafes, not sure how many confidential phone conversations they have. I visited Durham a few weeks back during the working week and Weatherspoon's was full of people using tables as a workspace with their computers and phones.

We hope everyone is being professional but we can't know it.

I think I would prefer this to if they were talking on the phone in the open plan pharmacy.

A awful lot of NHS workers as well ans GPs access medical records from home, they use a VPN from the IT department and are constrained by data protection regulations.

I'm on long term anti-depressants so yes i think this too, I'm open with my mental health issues but i wouldn't feel the same perhaps if i was a teacher or had my boss standing behind me .....I particularly think this when those receiving meds for their addiction come into the pharmacy! pharmacies often have very little privacy from eavesdropping.

How does a pharmacist work from home?

Doing the paperwork side by the sounds of it. Medication reviews by phone are probably more difficult to do when standing at a counter in the shop.

GPs now have pharmacists working for them (mine does anyway).