A recent Washington Post article examined the issue of patient privacy complaints after medical providers responded to negative Yelp® reviews about medical care. The issue of how a professional can (or should) respond to negative online reviews is not limited to physicians or medical facilities. While attorneys are not subject to HIPAA, they are all well aware that attorney-client communications are privileged and confidential and only the client can waive that privilege.
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HIPAA
Patient-on-Patient Violence: Does a Negligence Case Trump a Patient’s HIPAA Rights?

At some point in their careers, most medical malpractice defense attorneys have defended a medical facility against a claim for negligence based on one patient being attacked by another. The negligence claim is premised on a failure to properly supervise and protect a patient from another who is known to have a propensity for violence. This scenario happens in psychiatric institutions, hospitals (psychiatric units or regular floors) and long-term care facilities.
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The “3 Cs” of Physician Ethics

It’s not surprising that 70 percent of respondents to the Gallup poll ranked physicians as “highly” or “very highly” honest and ethical, considering that those who were polled are also patients who put their lives in physicians’ hands.
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