JCAHO may alter patient privacy rules
A committee from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has been considering whether to clarify the commission’s patient confidentiality standards as a result of a protest over a popular cable TV program. A physician in Dayton, OH, sought JCAHO’s involvement in his attempt to curb the use of video crews in emergency rooms by the program "Trauma: Life in the ER."
The show airs on Discovery’s TLC channel. The physician, Martin Fujimara, argues that the five-year-old program violates JCAHO’s patient privacy requirements. Fujimara complains that video crews often tape patients before obtaining their consent because many of the patients being rushed into trauma centers are comatose or too severely injured to approach.
The show’s producers say they always get permission later and that they are being solicited by hospitals to film hospital facilities.
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