Privacy under the spotlight
By Daisy
Photos by Su Yuan & Yao Fan

日前, 一旅居厦门的法国人在采访中和本刊记者聊起他在厦门就医的经历, 在众目睽睽之下宽衣打针让他颇为尴尬. 其实, 患者的隐私保护问题由来已久, 也一度引起了人们的广泛关注. 但究竟患者在医院就诊时有多少隐私权呢? 为此, 记者走访了厦门的一些医院, 并采访了一些外国友人, 他们介绍了国外在病人隐私权保护方面的一些有效措施, 希望他山之石可以攻玉.



Protection of a patient's right to privacy has been a hot issue nationwide for a long time, and the hospital, as a public sector institution, is closely connected to that debate.

Scenarios at local hospitals

Westerners tend to show more concern about privacy than most Chinese. Cultural differences in this regard frequently emerge during a visit to a Chinese hospital. Here are some examples from local hospitals.

Scene 1: During a physical examination, which often involves body contact, women tend to feel uncomfortable about being exposed to male physicians. Sexual harassment cases built around this privacy issue occur in local hospitals.



Scene 2: Chinese medical attendants tend to overlook the desire of patients to avoid being observed by other patients. "I felt embarrassed to show my bottom in front of other patients in the injection room," a French patient in a local hospital told Common Talk reporters.

Scene 3: In some hospital waiting rooms, doctors discuss medical records and prescribe medicine within earshot of other patients. In other hospitals, patients are left waiting in hallways for rooms. "Segregate and privatize the rooms where patients stay over night from the rest of the hospital, and don't leave them lying about in the halls with a complete lack of privacy," suggested Andrew, an American living in Xiamen.

The story behind the scenes

According to investigations into the issues involved, privacy invasion at hospitals falls into three major categories: sensitivity to sexual privacy, personal privacy in a public environment, and medical record privacy. These issues are often exacerbated as a result of cultural differences.

China is one of the most intensely populated countries in the world. Living in a highly populous country causes people to become accustomed to crowded public facilities. In the West, on the other hand, patients have learned to expect quiet and orderly waiting rooms and private discussions with doctors. "There are no throngs of noisy people moving and sitting about waiting to see the doctors in my home country," said Andrew.

Maikel Liem of The Netherlands remarked, "In Western countries you'll be alone with the doctor. I wasn't feeling good that day in the local hospital-that's the reason why I was in the hospital in the first place-but having all the other patients hover around me while I was talking to the doctor made the whole experience a lot worse."


▲Inpatients' information displayed at a local hospital might arouse privacy complaints.

"We have a lot of people. That's where the root of the problem lies." responded Mr. Chen, a public relations officer at Zhongshan Hospital in Xiamen. Often a lack of medical resources adds to the problem. "Our hospital is also a practice unit for the Medical School at Xiamen University," said Chen. "Due to a lack of real life situations, we can not help but use patients for teaching purposes, which might be perceived as a kind of privacy intrusion."

Relative laws, acts and regulations concerning privacy also appear in need of reform. Chinese law states that a hospital has the responsibility to protect the confidentiality of a patient's medical record, but no specific regulations focusing on other privacy issues appear to have been legislated.

In the West, especially in North America, children are imbued with a strong sense of privacy protection. "In the West people value privacy more because we're not used to living so closely together," said Maikel Liem. "In China, people are used to living openly with others. The Chinese emphasize sharing and cooperation. Age-old traditions influence present day social life. Doctors, nurses and even most patients don't see lack of privacy as a problem. It's a tradition," observed Mr. Chen.

To tackle the problem

Some suggestions have been forwarded to solve the current problem. The first is to boost public awareness of privacy protection issues. The second is to legislate improvements to current hospital policies. For example, the draft amendment to China's Law on Women's Right Protection, with its provisions to ban sexual harassment will hopefully reduce female patients' concerns about privacy invasion during a physical examination.



As a key player in the issue, hospitals have recognized the problem and are seeking a solution. "We provide a detached dispensary at Zhongshan Hospital, where only one patient is allowed to enter at a time," said Mr. Chen. "For prescription privacy, the hospital has established a website, supported by a reliable security system, where the patient is required to log on with their user's ID and password."

"In my home country, patients need to make an appointment with the doctor before they go. That helps to reduce the crowd size at the hospital," suggested Andrew.

Vocabulary
scenario 特定情节
prescribe 开处方
earshot 听力范围
segregate 隔离
exacerbate 加剧
throng 群集
imbue 灌输
dispensary 门诊部