Here’s what you should know.
1. A survey, published in BMJ Open, revealed 24 percent of 161 patients admitted to covertly recording their physicians. Only 11 states have laws in effect on covert recordings.
2. Patients are often recording conversations to remember a physician’s instructions. Many believe the recordings will aid in their compliance and understanding.
3. Physicians worry the recordings could create a barrier where patients aren’t entirely truthful.
4. Medscape reports while there haven’t been many lawsuits including recordings, they do occasionally occur. One notable example happened in Northern Virginia. A patient was about to undergo a colonoscopy. He began recording the conversation prior to his procedure to save the instructions his physicians gave him after the procedure. While under anesthesia, the physicians made several comments about the man.
The physicians “talked about avoiding the man after the procedure, instructing an assistant to lie to him and [place] a false diagnosis on his chart.” Notably an anesthesiologist said to the sedated patient, “After five minutes of talking to you in [preoperative], I wanted to punch you in the face and man you up a little bit.” The anesthesiologist made another disparaging comment later as well.
5. When the patient played back the tape, he filed a malpractice and defamation suit against several physicians. A jury ordered the anesthesiologist and her practice pay the man $500,000, including damages.
6. Several organizations have accepted recording as commonplace, but the nation’s largest professional liability carrier in Napa, Calif., The Doctor Company, discourages the practice.
7. The Doctor Company fears the recordings can be altered and manipulated to create an inaccurate portrayal of what occurred. The recordings can also easily be shared, potentially violating HIPAA.
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