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#Post#: 11755--------------------------------------------------
Re: Personal And Confidential
By: Kiwipinball Date: August 20, 2018, 9:17 am
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[quote author=Anon4Now link=topic=587.msg11734#msg11734
date=1534736805]
The legend "personal and confidential", used correctly, means
that it contains s personal information about *the recipient*.
So co-workers or the mailroom shouldn't open it out of respect
for the addressee's privacy.
It has nothing to do with the sender's privacy. It is not
binding in any way. If someone sends a written request to an
employee about their work, it can't be private, because they
work for the company. (Or in this case, the medical practice)
If the person who got the letter wants to show it to their
supervisor, they can and should. For a business customer to
expect an employee to keep personal secrets or hide their work
from their boss is wildly inappropriate and unreasonable. It
smacks of shady dealing or over-familiarity, and could leave the
employee vulnerable to allegations of misconduct.
Patient confidentiality and attorney-client privilege don't ban
sharing information inside the practice/firm. Doctors don't do
their own typing and filing. They don't transcribe their own
notes. They don't run the lab tests, send prescriptions to the
pharmacy, or dispense the medication. They don't do the billing
or accounts receivable, or insurance processing. They don't
normally open their own mail or deal with any HR matters
concerning the staff. If you are getting medical services from a
doctor, then everyone who works at the practice has access to
your medical information -- that's their job.
It's not about assuming the patient's intentions or getting
permission. If the complaint is going to be addressed at all, it
has to go through someone else. The only way to keep the letter
private is to ignore it, and for the patient to assume otherwise
would be bizarre. Since the patient stated they aren't coming
back, it would be a complete waste of the doctor's time to try
to chase them down, and I don't think reasonable people trying
to do a job have any obligation to try to appease bizarre and
unreasonable expectations.
Of course, the attitude that "I'm complaining, but I'll never
come back to see if you changed anything!" and "I'm going to
send a complaint you should act on, but don't tell anyone!"
would seem to be related.
[/quote]
I agree with most of this, but it's entirely possible for
something so bad to have happened that I'm not willing to give
them a second chance. However, if some of the people are decent,
I might let them know why I was leaving so they could address it
if they chose to do so.
#Post#: 11782--------------------------------------------------
Re: Personal And Confidential
By: guest657 Date: August 20, 2018, 2:02 pm
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[quote author=Aleko link=topic=587.msg10846#msg10846
date=1533628562]
[quote]I don't think the doctor needs approval to pass on the
letter to receptionist's boss. I think a response from the
supervisor with a "Ms. X, I am Office Manager for the practice.
Dr. Who shared your concern about your last visit with me. I
want you to know we appreciate feedback and are taking necessary
actions to address your concerns."[/quote]
But s/he does. Absolutely does. Confidentiality is a HUGE issue
in medicine, and even if the doctor assumes (as we all do) that
the letter was only marked P&C in order that the receptionist
wouldn't open it, [b]once it is so labelled s/he is obliged to
take that label literally. I[b]f I sent anything to my doctor
marked P&C and got a response not from him but someone else who
he had passed it to for action, even if that was totally the
logical thing for him to do I would trust him a little less.
[/quote]
No. No such obligation exists.
That may be your personal feeling, and you're entitled to it,
and to choose your providers accordingly. But this is not an
actual legal or ethical obligation by any common standard.
Doctors get an average of 15 minutes per patient in actual
face-to-face exam time. And they don't get paid for any of their
non billable tasks. To think your doctor should personally call
you on demand to discuss office staffing -- or anything that
isn't directly related to your course of treatment -- would be
startlingly entitled. You can write anything you want on the
envelope: "To be opened only on the full moon." "Top Secret!" or
even "Call me immediately at this number!"
None of it creates any obligation on the recipient.
Even if the receptionist ignored the label and opened it anyway,
it wouldn't be a violation of the patient's legal rights, or of
medical ethics. It would be totally up to the management (not
the patient) whether to consider that worthy of disciplinary
action. And if it got delivered to the right person, they might
not.
I had several attorney bosses who authorized me to open all
their mail - even stuff marked "Personal & Confidential." The
majority was junk mail. The next biggest group was the boss' own
bank statements or insurance papers, which it was my job to sort
and file. After that was correspondence or statements sent to
estates, trusts, or businesses that we represented. Which of
course, can't be personal at all because they aren't people.
And the last segment was from clients about issues the firm was
working on. It was personal to them, and confidential from
anyone outside the firm, but having other people handling it was
in the client's best interest.
My boss billed at $450 per hour. My time was thrown in free with
the service. I guarantee the client didn't want to pay his rate
to open mail, make copies, sort and prioritize the "action" file
in my boss' inbox, and do the filing. He would personally call
the client back if needed or requested -- with a 15 minute
minimum.
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