Teenagers value their privacy. It’s why they put locks on their journals, hide their cell phones, and set up private social media accounts. So it only makes sense that for adolescents and teens to feel comfortable coming to you for confidential medical care, they need to feel safe and protected. Using a pediatric-specialty EHR like OP helps you navigate and honor teen privacy protection.
Seeking help for potentially sensitive issues like sexuality, mental health, or drug use is easier for them to talk about if they can give their own consent and have confidence that their health information is kept private. But it’s not just privacy from their parents and caregivers that they worry about; it extends to members of your staff too.
The 21st Century Cures Act requires that pediatricians provide medical records on request, and making sure a teen’s privacy is protected when records are released is paramount. You must exclude their private information so it isn’t shared when a request is made by a parent or guardian. Using a pediatric-specialty EHR like OP helps you meet these requirements – and more.
Customizable privacy controls allow providers to keep protected information from parents or caregivers, when applicable by state law. Privacy can be extended to medications, lab results, messages, and documented confidential conversations that occur during a patient visit.
Teen patients can feel comfortable entrusting you with their healthcare if they know their parents won’t find out about the results of an STD test or a discussion about their sexual orientation. Limited access to confidential records placed on the portal is another pediatric-friendly feature that protects teen privacy in OP.
If your pediatric practice uses CHADIS, you may invite teens to take surveys through the patient portal. Teens who complete CHADIS surveys can provide clinicians with valuable information to diagnose and manage general health or behavioral concerns that a parent may be unable to convey. With a rise in teen mental health issues, CHADIS’s teen mental health surveys are a tremendous confidential tool to use with your patients and can be integrated with OP.
It could be a neighbor who does billing at your practice. Or a parent’s friend who manages referrals. It could even be a classmate scheduling appointments as a summer intern. These are just a few of the people who may have access to your teen’s medical records at your pediatric practice.
To keep their private information restricted, you need to use a pediatric-specialty EHR that respects the privacy of your patients as much as you do.
OP has user permissions and privacy constraints in various sections of the patient’s medical record. Who can see the record is determined by the setting made at the user level. The higher the level of visibility, the fewer people can see the information.
A practice administrator or physician owner can set staff visibility and provide five levels of access. They range from “any staff member,” which allows anyone on your staff to access a patient record, to “author only,” which is the most restrictive. If a record is marked “author only,” only the person who created it can access, retrieve, and print it. The patient portal does not display this type of record.
Setting appropriate staff visibility ensures that your patients’ private medical records are only viewed by those who need to see them.
Here’s a list of common locations where a privacy restriction may be used in OP.
Allergies * Care Plans * Patient Charts * Diagnostic Tests * Documents * Encounters
General Notes * Medications + Medication Favorites * Messages * Problem Lists
Risk Assessments * Surveys * Well Visits
