Confidentiality in the emergency department

The ideal of patient confidentiality has mutated over the last several years to accommodate the factors that infringe upon its meaning; such as expanding health care information technologies, physical environments that promote breaches of patient privacy, and health care workers who are unaware of how their routine behavior infringes on patients' right to privacy. This article examines the various ways in which confidentiality is breached in the emergency department and the legal issues involved, and explores options for the improvement of patient privacy for physicians and other health care professionals.