The Issue of Patient Privacy and Confidentiality

The main problem is that the confidentiality of medical records in most cases is under the clinician’s discretion which is risky as they have the capability to misuse this information for their own personal endeavors. Therefore, it is not strange that cases have been reported where clinicians have released a patient’s information without their consent in these Saudi hospitals. This is one of the major problems facing Saudi hospitals and currently very little effort is being made to introduce privacy policies in the nation. One reason why these doctors can release patient’s information without their consent is because in most cases these patients are not even aware it is taking place. Hence, they are less likely to report the hospital or the clinicians for these.

First of all, the relevant governmental bodies responsible for ensuring privacy need to develop information privacy compliance programs (Alsulaiman, 2014). In many developed countries for example the US, specific laws are in place that directly address patient privacy and protection of their information. For instance, there is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that ensures privacy of patient information. Saudi Arabia could use such a policy as a template to come up with its own law that directly addresses this issue and prevents any breech of confidentiality of information by physicians. In fact, those physicians who fail to ensure privacy of the patient’s data should be sued for malpractice and dealt with by the law. Fayez, R. , Nawwab, A. , Al-Jahdali, H.