Patients' perception and actual practice of informed consent, privacy and confidentiality in general medical outpatient departments of two tertiary care hospitals of Lahore
Open Access
- 25 September 2008
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in BMC Medical Ethics
- Vol. 9 (1), 14
- https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6939-9-14
Abstract
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.This publication has 34 references indexed in Scilit:
- Do family practitioners in Lithuania inform their patients about adverse effects of common medications?Journal of Medical Ethics, 2008
- Patients' satisfaction and opinions of their experiences during admission in a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan – a cross sectional studyBMC Health Services Research, 2007
- Informed consent in clinical practice: pre-registration house officers’ knowledge, difficulties and the need for postgraduate trainingMedical Teacher, 2005
- From Hippocrates to HIPAA: Privacy and confidentiality in Emergency Medicine—Part I: Conceptual, moral, and legal foundationsAnnals of Emergency Medicine, 2005
- Informed Consent Hong Kong Style: An Instance of Moderate FamilismJournal of Medicine and Philosophy, 2004
- Observations of Physician, Patient and Family Perceptions of Informed Consent in Houston, TexasJournal of Medicine and Philosophy, 2004
- Choices of Japanese Patients in the Face of DisagreementBioethics, 1998
- Knowledge, confidence, and attitudes regarding medical ethicsAcademic Medicine, 1995
- Intersections of Western Biomedical Ethics and World Culture: Problematic and PossibilityCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 1992
- Confidentiality in Medicine — A Decrepit ConceptThe New England Journal of Medicine, 1982