This month we thought we would focus on issues that relate to our adolescent patients. And one of the issues that will always relate to caring for adolescents is confidentiality.
If you're not familiar with our policy on confidentiality, you can find it on our website. We also hand out paper copies to parents and patients alike when they come in for well checks during the teenage years. We think it's important for both our patients and their parents to know where we stand on the issue.
In brief, we believe it is in our patients' best interest and in keeping with the standard of care to offer them a safe, protected space to share private information. This information often relates to choices parents might object to, and which they may not have shared with adults or authority figures before out of fear of being punished. By giving them this space to share information free of this fear, it is our hope that we can better ensure the health and well-being of our patients.
Our goal is most certainly not to take the place of parents, or to keep them in the dark. As often as we can, we will encourage our patients to have open conversations with their parents. And rest assured that we will always disclose if a patient tells us they are a threat to their own life or that of someone else. But for certain kinds of sensitive issues, we feel it is better to be a source of responsible, confidential care and advice than to have our patients feel there are no such resources available to them in times of need.
We've had this approach to confidentiality for quite some time, and it seems that almost all of our patient's parents have come to understand and accept our viewpoint. Which leads us to the opposite problem from time to time - sometimes parents don't show up for their kids' visits any longer.
It may seem silly to show up for your child's appointment if he or she is going to spend almost the entire time alone with the medical provider in an exam room. But there are many reasons we'd like you to come along for your child's appointment.
The first and simplest reason is that we need you to consent for your child's care. It may seem obvious that you're consenting to their care when you send them to their appointment, but often we need you to sign something to make it clear that the evaluation and treatment we've done was with your permission. We may have vaccines to recommend or blood tests to do, and we need to be able to discuss these with you before we do them.
On that note, if we do discover something that warrants more treatment or investigation, we want to have you nearby so we can keep you informed. While this doesn't happen all that often for otherwise well kids at their yearly check-ups, it's certainly a possibility and we would want to be able to answer your questions and talk with you face-to-face should there be something important that comes up.
Also, you're still a valuable source of information. It's quite common for us to talk to a teenage patient and hear from him or her that they have no concerns, then step out of the room to talk to a parent and hear a whole list of issues that the patient forgot or neglected to mention. Even though we want our adolescent patients to be responsible for their own healthcare to a great degree, you're still an important part of the conversation.
And finally, it's important to remember that it is still something of a vulnerable position to be in when you have a physical exam. We'll generally want our patients undressed and in gowns, and for everyone's comfort and reassurance we like to know you're in the building to allay any concerns your child may have.
Thank you for helping us deliver care to your children as they make the transition to adulthood, and for understanding why we sometimes have you wait outside the exam room but never too far away.
