Does a patients death relieve health-care workers of confidentiality restrictions during a contact investigation?
Health-care workers should be aware that legal obligations regarding confidentiality may vary widely from state to state. Health-care workers should know the confidentiality laws in their state. Occasionally, a contact investigation will need to be conducted without an interview with an index patient. The patient may have died, may be difficult to locate, or may be psychologically unfit to participate in a contact investigation interview. In such cases, it is still important to conduct a contact investigation to identify contacts who may have been exposed to TB. For example, if the patient died before the contact investigation interview is initiated, a member of the patient’s household (or another person who is knowledgeable about the places where the patient may have exposed others) should be interviewed as a proxy for the patient. Likewise, if a health-care worker is unable to locate a known infectious TB patient, but knows some of the places where the infectious patient may have exp
Related Questions
- I would like to speak to a recovered Gerson patient. Can the Gerson Institute provide me with the contact information for recovered patients?
- Does a patients death relieve health-care workers of confidentiality restrictions during a contact investigation?
- Is it a violation of confidentiality for a hospital to permit the OPO to review patient death records?
