Sometimes, patients or their family members can?t participate in doctors? discussions about care.
An unconscious or incoherent patient, for instance, changes the boundaries of patient privacy, said Dr. Stephen Schenkel, director of Mercy Medical Center?s Emergency Department.
And some patients have not fully considered how much information about their diagnosis and treatment they wish to share.
Mercy doctors always try to have some private sessions with patients.
“I think we all work hard to involve the family in care,” he said. “Patients haven?t always thought about what it means to have their family there.”
Hospital design may also play a role.
At Mercy?s neonatal intensive care unit, patients occupy one large room, making group discussions ofmedical information impractical under federal privacy law.
In other cases, patients may not want to know.
Brian Reynold, 13, said sometimes he heard a little too much information after an accident with a leaf shredder left him with one finger on his right hand. He listened as University of Maryland Medical Center doctors discussed care ? 11 surgeries to save what was left of his right hand.
“At one point, they thought they might have to attach my hand to my thigh, to regrow some tissue. I was freaking out about it,” Brian said.
Later, the doctor sat down and explained the procedure, which was eventually scrapped. “It wasn?t so weird then,” Brian said.
His mother, Katheryn Reynold, said being involved in the discussion relieved some of the trauma of the situation, at least for her.
“We?ve never had any concerns about his medical care while he?s been here,” she said. “The experience itself has been pretty horrific, but the medical care has been wonderful.”
