Articles

It was 2006 and my spouse and I were seated in the waiting room of my obstetrician's office. I was expecting our first baby and just there for a normal check-up. It was an early morning appointment, so there was only one other patient in the waiting room with us. I recall noticing her because she looked young and she wasn't noticeably pregnant (like patients who joined me in the waiting room usually were.) The assistant called her back by name just before they called me back.

As my spouse and I sat in the exam room and talked, we heard the OB/GYN open the door to the exam room right next to us and greet the girl who had been in the waiting room with us. Then, we very plainly heard an exchange between them about how the girl had engaged in some unhealthy practices and now was worried she had become infected with an STI. My spouse and I looked at each other horrified that we had been privy to a discussion that was definitely none of our business. We also did not like the fact that, if we could overhear them as plainly as if they were sitting in the room with us, then they obviously could hear us and our confidential exchanges as well.

Before the doctor came into the room, I tried to find out the reason the noise was carrying so well between both rooms. I discovered that the room had been retrofitted to fit the needs of this obstetrician's practice and that the wall between both rooms butted up against a window. There was a tiny amount of space between the window and the wall and that was the cause of the noise leak.

Besides it being an obvious breach of HIPAA laws, this type of problem could conceivably effect a doctor's relationship with and care that they give to a patient. If the patient notices that what they tell their doctor is not automatically confidential, they could be more reluctant to give out specifics that could be germane to what care they should be receiving. The trust between a patient and a doctor should be fostered and safeguarded and this kind of disregard for the confidentiality of what is shared could be harmful to that.

A straightforward solution for the problem would be to outfit the space with sound masking technology. With the addition of some subtle background noise in each room, it would not have been nearly so easy to hear discussions in other rooms.

A simple solution for the problem of audible breaches of confidentiality would be to outfit the space with sound masking technology. With the addition of some barely noticeable background or "white" noise in each room, it would not have been nearly so easy to hear exchanges in other rooms.