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Hospital Chaplaincy |
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News
Stories
Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act of Canada
- effect on the relationship between patients
and chaplaincy
Recent
new Privacy Policies in hospitals from the Privacy Commissioner
Commissioner's
Findings under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic
Documents Act
See also U.S.
Federal Health Privacy Laws a clarification below
Access
of chaplains to patients (British Columbia)
[information
provided by Charles Joerin Spiritual Care Manager for Vancouver
Island Health Authority]
 This
is currently consistent for all services in Vancouver Island
Health Authority:
Collection
of personal information must be accompanied by a hospital
statement as to what purpose the information will be used
for and who will have access to it.  Then
consent is given (or not) by the individual.Most
churches and faith communities are now telling their adherents
through their own internal communications to request their
denomination or faith affiliation be noted in their personal
health record when contacted by a pre-admission clerk or whoever
is taking the information at the time of entry into hospital.
Lists
of persons according to their affiliation are then printed
by patient placement daily and available to clergy or their
delegate to access when visiting the hospitals. The
location of these lists varies according to each hospital.
October
20/03 -
Bibles
to be banned from Calgary hospitals by
Robin Summerfield, The Calgary Herald
Bibles
in bedside tables might become a thing of the past inside
patient rooms at Calgary hospitals.
If
the policy is approved, the Gideon Bible, a bedside staple
provided by Gideons International, will be removed from all
hospital rooms in the city and the Calgary Health Region will
ban all distribution and display of any printed religious
materials in hospitals.
The
policy, which is still under review and likely won't be decided
for at least two months, has drawn both acceptance and criticism
from religious leaders in Calgary.
An
official for the health region says the policy is the best
way to avoid religious discrimination or even the appearance
that the organization favours one religious group over another.
"There's
no interest in restricting access.It's
just that we want it to be non-discriminatory," said Toni
MacDonald, the health region's director of spiritual care."There's
not enough room in the drawers for all of the materials."
"The
secularists are taking over," countered Anglican Rev. Robert
Greene."This
is just one more step in the secularization of soceity - to
get rid of anything of spiritual content."
The
policy calls for the removal of Gideon Bibles from bedside
tables, and the posting and distribution of any printed spiritual
or religious materials including the Bible, the Koran and
the Book of Mormon.
Religious
materials, however, would still be available upon request
through pastoral services at each hospital.
"The
idea is not acceptable to me," said Imam Mohammad Al Nadvi,
Calgary's Muslim spiritual leader.It
gives the impression, added Mr. Al Nadvi, "that faith is maybe
some negative thing, some harmful thing,."
"The
better option is to solve it, to get together and solve it,
rhan to get rid of it altogether," he said.
Spiritual
and pastoral services at all hospitals will continue to offer
24-hour on-call advisers of all faiths.
[PPO
comment - this is not necessarily
a new direction in Canada.For
example, in Victoria B.C. hospitals, bibles have not been
placed in patients' rooms for many years.They
are available (courtesy of the Gideons) through the chaplains,
and some are available at Nursing Stations and in some waiting
rooms and the chapel.]
U.S.
Federal Health Privacy Laws a clarification [re
access of chaplains to patients]
- no longer available on the internet
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 2003 To:
politech@politechbot.com
Subject: Katharina Kopp kkopp@healthprivacy.org
defends HIPAA federal health privacy laws
Re: Medical Privacy, posting
by J.D. Abolins
Both
J.D. Abolins and the author of the posted news article incorrectly
state what the HIPAA privacy
rule requires. Unfortunately
they add to the confusion
and misunderstanding about certain provisions of the law.Despite
the law's clear purpose and scope, a lack of widespread and
consistent public education, training, and technical assistance
over the past 2 and one half years, has given rise to a number
of persistent and destructive myths.It
might be useful to the readers of your listserve to have a
look at the Health Privacy Project's 'Myths and Facts about
the HIPAA Privacy Rule,' available on our website:
Myth
3 and 4 address the confusion and misinterpretation that the
quoted article on access
by clergy to patients' addresses.The
Privacy Rule permits hospitals to continue the practice of
providing directory information
to the public -- including clergy -- unless the patient
has specifically chosen
to opt out.The
Regulation specifically provides that hospitals may continue
the practice of disclosing directory information "to members
of the clergy," unless the patient has objected to such disclosure.Any
requirement that the patient must list a specific church or
any limitation on the practice of directly notifying clergy
of admitted patients is either an internal hospital policy
or based on a confused reading of the law.
Katharina Kopp, Ph.D. Program
Manager. Health
Privacy Project.
1120 19th Street, NW, 8th
Floor. Washington, DC 20036
phone (202) 721-5614, fax
(202) 530-0128.
Woman
Sues Hospital for Barring Prayer Visit to Friend
by Andy Butcher
(Charisma News) (no date), no longer available on the internet
A
Florida woman has filed a lawsuit against a leading hospital
for allegedly barring her from going to pray for a sick friend.Mary
Jensen says that a previous dispute with Shands Hospital in
Gainesville over alleged pagan rituals is behind the ban keeping
her from visiting the victim of a stroke.
a spokesman for the university [that operates the hospital]
said that the institution did not have a policy regarding
prayer
"However,
we do have policies regarding disruptive conduct"
Jensen's
protest centered on an event called "The Healing Power of
the Sacred Circle" in which participants were invited to paint
prayer rocks and help create a medicine wheel.An
interfaith chaplain described the ritual as "uniting Father
Sky and Mother Earth."Jensen
said that she had asked for equal time for a Christian event,
but been refused.She
had taken a banner to pray not in protest but as "spiritual
warfare," she said.
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