All healthcare professionals are bound by medical secrecy to protect patients from any public revelation of a health problem they may wish to keep confidential. The patient is the sole owner of his or her health data, and no one can claim to obtain this information from a third party - not even with the patient's consent, which, under French law, has no power to release healthcare professionals from this duty of secrecy.
The information given to loved ones in intensive care is an exception made by caregivers: because of the major psychological impact of being faced with a loved one whose life is in danger, it is accepted to inform loved ones of important elements of the medical file in order to help them find meaning, have some control over the situation and anticipate the future.
However, this information is not the responsibility of the family, and caregivers must be extremely careful in choosing the people to whom they will give this information. This is why (in the absence of a trusted support person designated by the patient) they will ask you to designate a family member to centralize the information and take responsibility, or not, for passing it on to other family members.
In order to protect the confidentiality of patient information, no sensitive information is ever given over the telephone, a device which cannot be used to ascertain the identity of the caller. To obtain detailed information, you will need to visit our premises.
As a general rule, a welcome interview is offered to the patient's closest relatives on admission to intensive care, and subsequent interviews may be offered as important events require. If necessary, you can request a formal discussion between two interviews, often by making an appointment with the department's secretaries.
As for more day-to-day information, it's usually given on a daily basis, as you meet the caregivers. It is sometimes useful to target the right person to ask your questions: doctors are often a little less available than the rest of the team, but they are not the only ones who can give you information:
Don't hesitate to target the right contact.
During the medical interviewsIt's not always easy to integrate everything and remember all the questions you need to ask.Never hesitate to take notes! Medical interviews with the next of kin are key moments for communication, but they are not always easy for families to deal with, because they are :
Tips on how to approach these interviews:
Please note: in general, paramedics prefer to be accompanied by a doctor for all announcements of new elements in management (new treatments, test results, appearance of new signs or symptoms, etc.). It's simply a question of not starting an exchange with you that could lead to questions they won't be able to answer precisely and exhaustively, and which, if left unanswered, could cause even more frustration and anxiety.
Témoignage de Céline Apprendre à gérer les informations médicales