TY - JOUR
KW - Adult
KW - Attitude
KW - Confidentiality/standards
KW - Counseling
KW - Family Practice/organization & administration/standards
KW - Female
KW - Focus Groups
KW - Fraud
KW - Health Care Surveys
KW - Humans
KW - Male
KW - Physician-Patient Relations
KW - Practice Management, Medical/organization & administration
KW - Primary Health Care/organization & administration/standards
KW - Qualitative Research
KW - Rural Population
KW - Telephone/trends
AU - B. McKinstry
AU - P. Watson
AU - H. Pinnock
AU - D. Heaney
AU - A. Sheikh
A1 - 
AB - BACKGROUND: Confidentiality is considered a cornerstone of the medical consultation. However, the telephone, previously used mainly to negotiate appointments, has become increasingly employed as a means of consultation and may pose new problems in respect to maintaining confidentiality. OBJECTIVE: As part of a qualitative investigation into the views of patients, doctors, nurses and administrative staff on the use of telephone consulting in general practice, we set out to explore the impact of the use of this medium on perceptions of confidentiality. METHOD: We used focus groups of purposively selected patients, clinicians and administrative staff in urban and rural areas. RESULTS: Fifteen focus groups comprising 91 individuals were convened. Participants concerns centred on overheard conversations, the receptionist role in triage, difficulty of maintaining confidentiality in small close-knit communities, errors in identification, third party conversations and answering machines. Telephone consulting, depending on the circumstances, could pose a risk or offer a solution to maintaining confidentiality. CONCLUSIONS: Many of the concerns that patients and health care staff have around confidentiality breaches both on the telephone and face to face are amenable to careful management. Although rare, identification error or fraud can be a potentially serious problem and further thought needs to be given to the problem of misidentification on the telephone and the use of passwords considered.
BT - Family practice
C5 - HIT & Telehealth
CP - 5
CY - England
DO - 10.1093/fampra/cmp032
IS - 5
JF - Family practice
N2 - BACKGROUND: Confidentiality is considered a cornerstone of the medical consultation. However, the telephone, previously used mainly to negotiate appointments, has become increasingly employed as a means of consultation and may pose new problems in respect to maintaining confidentiality. OBJECTIVE: As part of a qualitative investigation into the views of patients, doctors, nurses and administrative staff on the use of telephone consulting in general practice, we set out to explore the impact of the use of this medium on perceptions of confidentiality. METHOD: We used focus groups of purposively selected patients, clinicians and administrative staff in urban and rural areas. RESULTS: Fifteen focus groups comprising 91 individuals were convened. Participants concerns centred on overheard conversations, the receptionist role in triage, difficulty of maintaining confidentiality in small close-knit communities, errors in identification, third party conversations and answering machines. Telephone consulting, depending on the circumstances, could pose a risk or offer a solution to maintaining confidentiality. CONCLUSIONS: Many of the concerns that patients and health care staff have around confidentiality breaches both on the telephone and face to face are amenable to careful management. Although rare, identification error or fraud can be a potentially serious problem and further thought needs to be given to the problem of misidentification on the telephone and the use of passwords considered.
PP - England
PY - 2009
SN - 1460-2229; 0263-2136
SP - 344
EP - 350
EP - 
T1 - Confidentiality and the telephone in family practice: a qualitative study of the views of patients, clinicians and administrative staff
T2 - Family practice
TI - Confidentiality and the telephone in family practice: a qualitative study of the views of patients, clinicians and administrative staff
U1 - HIT & Telehealth
U2 - 19497987
U3 - 10.1093/fampra/cmp032
VL - 26
VO - 1460-2229; 0263-2136
Y1 - 2009
ER -