Confidentiality		The definition of confidentiality is - What we say in this room, does not leave this room. That's it! A lot of adolescents and their parents don't realize how important this is, that we really care. There's a national Center for Adolescent Health and the Law, run by a lawyer by the name of Abigail English, that lobbies for adolescent health rights. Confidentiality is especially important now with HIPAA. It has become a big problem for a lot of practitioners and, for this reason, they opt not to take care of this age group. If you are going to work with this population, you need to allow for a flexible schedule when situations come up that require an unexpectedly large amount of time. There are some limitations of confidentiality that you and the patient need to be aware of: harm to self or others suspected physical or sexual abuse HIV disease if the patient says it's OK to break confidentiality Rarely will a doctor be sued over a confidentiality issue, when acting in the best interest of the patient. If you think that things are not going well in your visit, stop, take a breath, come out and talk to one of the attendings and/or talk to Risk Management. They can help you sort out what is and what isn't OK to disclose during the clinical visit. Return to top of page