Privacy

I have a beef with my doctor's office. No, it's not my OB-GYN for a change. We take our baby to a great pediatric clinic and we love our pediatrician. However, I've been oddly healthy since we've moved to Utah and so I didn't really have a primary care physician of my own. In the same office space as the pediatric clinic is an internal medicine clinic so when I got deathly ill last week, I made an appointment over there.

I really liked the doctor and was pleased with the treatment I received. However, the lab was another story. I've actually dealt with the lab before when Thor had tests done there, and they are invariably pleasant. However, there is nothing quite like having someone say at high volume, "Oh, OK. You're here to give a stool sample? Hang on... Linda, can you take a look at this? Does that mean stool sample? Oh, it does? Oh, OK. Well, here are the instructions..."

Sorry, but like it or not, if you were within thirty feet or so of the lab window, you knew the nature of my visit. I know there's no reason to be embarrassed and frankly, I wasn't all that embarrassed, but I did find it odd that there was NO attempt at discretion. The same thing happened when I dropped off the sample. "OK, what kind of sample are you dropping off? Oh -- a stool sample. All righty... let's see. What time did you collect the sample? OK. Great. I'll just take that..."

Again, the volume could have been ratcheted down significantly. But honestly, I can handle giving up that kind of privacy. However, the next part is what really concerned me.

Predictably, I started feeling better practically the second I dropped off the lab sample, and within a couple of days was feeling just fine, but the baby started up right where I left off and got really sick. So I ended up back at the office for a pediatrician's appointment the same day my lab results were supposed to be in. I figured I might as well stroll over to the nurse's station and ask for my lab results, which I did. And which they gave me. But here's the weird thing. No one ever made any attempt to verify my identity. They asked my name and phone number and then went right ahead and verbally told me my test results.

Now, my name and number are both available to just about anybody. I could have walked in and impersonated anyone in their practice and, I presume, gotten the results of their tests. Now, granted, I don't think anyone particularly cares or could benefit from the outcome of my cryptosporidiosis test, but it's just the principle of the thing. Shouldn't they be more careful? The lady at the desk had never seen me before and I've only visited that part of the practice once, so it's not like they knew me by sight. I'm torn between thinking, "How quaint. People in Utah are so trusting; if only we could all be like that," and "How ridiculous. Shouldn't they take some steps to protect my medical information from any weirdo who wanders in here? I should write a letter." In the end, I'll probably let it go, but it's something to think about.