[shoegal]

Hello
I just had a question, I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask it, but do pharmacists have confidentiality laws? Is it illegal for them to tell others what you have purchased?

[Wondergirl]

Yes. The same goes for any mental and physical health practitioner. Even at the public library where I work, we are under strict rules about patron confidentiality. For instance, we will not allow a husband to pick up a book for his wife if she has not given written or in-person-to-us approval. (If she's requesting books on divorce or an STD, she may not want him to know that. It's her privacy that counts for us.) We are not to divulge even staff or patron names to other patrons.

A couple of years ago my pharmacist asked all of his customers to sign a form about confidentiality. He will not even dispense/allow pickup of any of my prescriptions to anyone unless that person is on my approved list.

Have you had a problem with someone professional not keeping confidences?

[J_9]

They have confidentiality as far as your medical prescriptions, yes. But as far as other purchases, I doubt it.

[Wondergirl]

Hmmm, J_9, I don't think my pharmacist would even reveal a customer's OTC purchases to another customer.

"Oh yeah. Mrs. Beasley. I know her. She bought a large jar of suppositories last week. She hasn't been back to complain."

But if you needed a new roof and the pharmacist knew of another customer who does roofing, he would probably pass on the name and company phone number.

[J_9]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was getting at. Why would a pharmacist even want to tell another customer about OTC purchases?

But the original question was rather vague.

[shoegal]

Actually, it wasn't me who has been done wrong. A friend of mine's daughter, who is 17, was buying condoms. The pharmacist told my friend that her daughter was buying condoms, and now the daughter feels betrayed by the pharmacist and thinks that it is a legal issue. Is this true?

[J_9]

Actually, I don't believe this would be a legal issue as would it be if she were picking up a prescription of birth control pills. Or for someone who was mentally ill picking up psychotropic meds and the pharmacist told Joe Smith that Sandy Davis has schizophrenia.

Was it wrong and inappropriate? Yes. Illegal? I doubt it.

[Wondergirl]

I just called my pharmacist. ("Go right to the horse's mouth," they tell us in library school.)

After putting me on hold and discussing it with two other pharmacists, he said it's a grey area. The three of them concluded it would not be against the confidentiality act but, like J_9 said, "wrong and inappropriate."

His reason for saying it "might be ok" (but with great reservations) was that if the pharmacist and mother knew each other since school days and were good friends and the pharmacist knew the mother was worried about her daughter's sexual activity. But after he said that, he said the three of them agreed that none of them would risk legal action by telling the mother.

[Fr_Chuck]

A condom is not a prescription, at the point of it being bought, anyone is merely being a cashier, not advising on any medical issue

[shoegal]

Thanks so much for all of the quick and great responses! :)

[missmarple]

There's always the nod nod, wink wink! Trust only one thing, your pocket

[earl237]

I have worked in medical fields and known people who have. Although they have confidentiality laws, in practice they rarely follow them. It is unfortunate. We like to think that medical professionals have higher ethics than the average person, but sadly, they aren't much different, and they like to gossip and laugh at other people's expense just like most people. In hospitals where I worked, I overheard workers gossiping about people's health problems, medications, abortions and other things that they had no business talking about. Legally, there is probably not much you can do about it unless you have proof and it has caused you embarrassment.