The tapes are labelled and obviously contain recordings of a psychiatrist's sessions with his patients. I am very curious to listen to them. On the one hand, the psychiatrist was negligent in just throwing them out in the garbage. On the other hand the little voice in my heads says it's wrong for me to listen to them . Should I listen to the recordings or destroy them?
2006-07-27 14:28:46 · 26 answers · asked by 5375 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Medicine
There is nothing on the labels to identify the patient. They are coded. Part of the code is like a file number, e.g. 090899, I think that is probably a date. So, they seem from the 1990's.
2006-07-27 14:41:02 · update #1
How would you feel if you were one of the people on the tapes?
Let that be your guide as to what you think should be the right thing to do.
If I was in your position and knew who the doctor was, I would return the tapes to him and let him know that it was an unwise way to dispose of the tapes and hope he destroyed them the next time. It was a terrible lapse of professional judgment on his part.
I take patient/doctor confidentiality with deadly seriousness.
2006-07-27 14:57:51 · answer #1 · answered by Jay T 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
You should destroy the tapes. They contain private material and listening to them would be an invasion of people's privacy. Would you like it if you shared your darkest secrets and found out that the psychiatrist shared them with the world?
You may need to contact the police about this incident. I'm not sure, but I think it may be illegal for a doctor to leave these tapes where people can take them and listen to them.
2006-07-27 14:34:59 · answer #2 · answered by Loren J 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you know anything about HIPPA laws and the laws about paitent confidentiality, you would know that this is NOT a good thing to be discovering.
HIPPA Federal Laws state that this is not just illegal but it is voilating the privacy of the patients that he/she serves. This person could loose their license to practice over this oversight.
The most responsible thing to to would be burn the tapes and not listen to them.
Think about other people knowing your dirty laundry and knowing other problems about you if you were that patient. ALWAYS put yourself in the other person's shoes.
You could turn them back over to the person you found them from and tell them they just boilated HIPPA by not having the cassettes destroyed properly and that they should seriously think about how they handle their privacy of their patients.
That's one way of handling it. Another is to bring it to the attention of a professional in the medical field that you know would give you better knowledge of the laws and how to handle this situation.
Above all.. Think about the patient and their privacy rights. Not only was the person who dumped those tapes legally bound and is responsible for this BUT you are too by finding them. Serious legal things can happen to both parties if this is not handled properly.
2006-07-27 15:25:34 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The right thing to do would be to just leave them in the garbage, obviously the psychiatrist didn't want people listening to them. They are personal between him and his patient.
2006-07-27 14:32:45 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Report it to the APA so that the Psychiatrist can be investigated for not keeping his/her patient's confidentiality. Maybe when enough of these stories become public, people will stop trusting in the "confidentiality agreement" that some so easily spout out but don't stand behind.
http://www.psych.org/index.cfm
2006-07-27 14:35:18 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Better yet, I'd do the following:
1. DO NOT listen to them (this is the morally right thing to do)
2. Bring them to a police station and say you found them and you
realize it is doctor/client information.
Hopefully the police will track the doctor down and this should embarass them enough to STOP it!
2006-07-27 14:31:52 · answer #6 · answered by 'Barn 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Destroy them how??? I've been researching how to dispose of old audio tapes of business meetings. Not anything anyone would be interested in, but how do you dispose of them? It looks as if there's no way to recycle them. I'm certainly not into making wallets out of them (apparently one creative solution)!! I just want to get rid of them. What do you do with a bag of old cassette tapes??
2015-12-19 15:43:12 · answer #7 · answered by Martha 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dang good question. It is wrong to listen, but I can only assume you've done that already. Either do it or don't but make sure can live with it. Someone trusted their doctor. One idea, find out whose they are and return them, maybe get a reward. Would teach this Dr. a lesson.
2006-07-27 14:35:32 · answer #8 · answered by Jester 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Listen!
2006-07-27 14:31:56 · answer #9 · answered by Sophie S. 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Destroy them, people who go to that psychiatrist, trust that it will be between just them and him. Don't listen to them, for the sake of the person.
2006-07-27 14:32:14 · answer #10 · answered by PeachyFixation 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋