Online Continuing Education Courses

Ethics of Confidential Information

• Define the terms confidential information and confidentiality.
• Identify the relationship of a patient's legal right to privacy with his reasonable expectations regarding confidential information.
• Describe how the telling and keeping of secrets is relevant to understanding the importance of confidentiality.
• Discuss the ethical norms involved in keeping and breaking professional confidences.
• Name five general legal exceptions to the professional standard of practice that confidences should not be broken.
• Consider practical options that a professional can take when faced with the possibility of breaking a confidence.
• Discuss some important aspects of documentation that affect confidentiality.
• Compare ethical issues of confidentiality traditionally conceived with those that have arisen because of computerized medical records and patient care information systems.
• Describe the key ethical strengths and challenges of the recent U.S. federal regulations related to privacy considerations (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996).
• Become familiar with AOTA and APTA Code of Ethics
• Review and become familiar with the TX PT Rules
• Read case scenarios illustrating ethical decision making