Violation of privacy? Court says no, it's just good citizenship.

[Rose Siding]

Dentist called cops when patient asked for pain-killers
Violation of privacy?
Court says no, it's just good citizenship.

A dentist did not violate California’s medical privacy statute by reporting to the San Francisco Police Department that one of its officers, a patient of the dentist, might have a problem with prescription drugs, the First District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday.

Div. Four, in an opinion by Presiding Justice Laurence Kay, affirmed San Francisco Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Mellon’s ruling in favor of the dentist, Jeffrey J. Bertani. The panel agreed that the disclosure was “specifically authorized by law” and was thus not prohibited by the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.

Officer Ricky Shaddox, a member of the department since 1989, was seen by Bertani in April 1998. When the dentist could not find any source for the pain Shaddox was claiming, he suggested that the officer simply have his teeth cleaned.

Bertani later testified that Shaddox asked for Vicodin, which Bertani would not prescribe. The officer, Bertani told Mellon at the bench trial on the officer’s lawsuit, “gave this icy glare as if he wanted to...beat me up.”

http://www.unknownnews.net/0731-1.html

[ex_jew]

1. Why is this a medical privacy issue ?

The cop went to the doc to score some pills. There WAS no medical problem. If there had been, it would have changed the situation, but there wasn't.

[pookiesdame]

2. "Why is this a medical privacy issue ?"

It's a privacy issue for those of us who don't want our health care providers doing double duty as narks.

[Terran]

3. No, I'm sorry

If the cop was abusing Vicodin (a brand name for hydrocodone, a highly addictive Class 3 controlled substance), then he badly needed help. Medical and dental practitioners are one of the primary ways in which abuse of prescription controlled drugs is uncovered, and they have the right to report such concerns when they have them.

Let me ask you, do you feel reassured by the thought that members of the law enforcement community might be impaired by drugs while they're one duty? Those same doctors and dentists sometimes become addicted themselves, and their own patients have to "nark" on them sometimes. Do you want your dentist giving you an injection in the mouth when he's high on Vicodin? It happens more often than you think.

I know this from first hand experience: I was a controlled drug investigator for the State of Missouri for several years. And we weren't there to "nark" on people on the street; we were enforcing laws that helped make sure that medical professionals were accountable for the controlled drugs they purchased for dispensing, and which also helped to make sure that such drugs ended up only in the hands of people with a legitimate medical need for them.

Dirk