Patients' perception and actual practice of informed consent, privacy and confidentiality in general medical outpatient departments of two tertiary care hospitals of Lahore

نویسندگان

  • Ayesha Humayun
  • Noor Fatima
  • Shahid Naqqash
  • Salwa Hussain
  • Almas Rasheed
  • Huma Imtiaz
  • Sardar Zakariya Imam
چکیده

BACKGROUND The principles of informed consent, confidentiality and privacy are often neglected during patient care in developing countries. We assessed the degree to which doctors in Lahore adhere to these principles during outpatient consultations. MATERIAL & METHOD The study was conducted at medical out-patient departments (OPDs) of two tertiary care hospitals (one public and one private hospital) of Lahore, selected using multi-stage sampling. 93 patients were selected from each hospital. Doctors' adherence to the principles of informed consent, privacy and confidentiality was observed through client flow analysis performed by trained personnel. Overall patient perception was also assessed regarding these practices and was compared with the assessment made by our data collectors. RESULTS Some degree of informed consent was obtained from only 9.7% patients in the public hospital and 47.8% in the private hospital. 81.4% of patients in the public hospital and 88.4% in the private hospital were accorded at least some degree of privacy. Complete informational confidentiality was maintained only in 10.8% and 35.5% of cases in public & private hospitals respectively. Informed consent and confidentiality were better practiced in the private compared to the public hospital (two-sample t-test > 2, p value < 0.05). There was marked disparity between the patients' perspective of these ethical practices and the assessment of our trained data collectors. CONCLUSION Observance of medical ethics is inadequate in hospitals of Lahore. Doctors should be imparted formal training in medical ethics and national legislation on medical ethics is needed. Patients should be made aware of their rights to medical ethics.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

A Review on Some Aspects of Patient’ Rights in Clinical Education

Clinical education will be possible with involving patients. Many patients who seek medical and diagnostic care can be involved in clinical training. Therefore, teachers and students need to know the legal aspects of patient involvement and adhere to these aspects in order to attract patients’ participation and satisfaction. This study reviewed the importance and necessity of legal aspects, i...

متن کامل

Professionalism for future humanistic doctors

Dear editor Clinical environments encounter is an important part of studying medicine (1). Patient contact as an integral part of medical education occurs in various formats in the clinical settings (2, 3). During clinical training, medical students may experience high levels of stress, and some may not deal with it well. The abruptness of students’ transition to the clinical setting generated ...

متن کامل

Adherence to Informed Consent Standards in Shiraz Hospitals: Matrons Perspective

Background Informed consent is an important part of the patients’ rights and hospitals are assigned to obtain informed consent before any diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. Obtaining an informed consent enables patients to accept or reject their care or treatments and prevent future contentions among patients and medical staff.   Methods This survey was carried out during 2011-2. We assessed...

متن کامل

A Study of Psychotropic Drugs Being Prescribed to the Patients Attending the Psychiatric Outpatient Department in a Tertiary Care Hospital

BACKGROUND & PURPOSE: Drug utilization research evaluates the appropriateness of the prescriptions which is important in clinical practice. Psychotropic polypharmacy is a major problem in psychiatric practice, which can lead to the development of adverse effects of those drugs in patients. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate the utilization of psychotropic drugs being prescribed f...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • BMC Medical Ethics

دوره 9  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2008