Increasingly, I realize that I’m being audio-recorded when I’m interacting with my patients at their hospital bedside. I say realize, because the majority of the time I’m never asked. Sometimes it’s the patient recording. Other times it’s a family member in the room. In both scenarios I get upset. I feel violated. When it’s the patient recording me, I tell myself that they are recording so they do not have to remember the details to share with a family member who will come to pester them with questions. I’m not as forgiving though when it’s a family member at the bedside. What do they need to record me surreptitiously for? I automatically lose trust in that patient and their family.
It’s one thing to secretly take notes. It’s another to ask the doctor to dictate slowly as if what is being shared is a memorized script. And it’s a whole other ballgame to flat-out record the doctor without asking for permission to do so. It’s very rude.
In the past, I’ve just ignored the family members furiously writing away in their huge notebooks trying to capture every single word I utter. I don’t mind their jotting down brief notes, the name of an antibiotic being given, or the bacteria being treated, or the treatment plan being offered, but I’m not a college professor giving a lecture. This will not be on the test. Often, I find myself taking away their pen and paper and correcting their spelling. If they are going to get a second opinion from Dr. Google they might as well have the correct spelling for vancomycin, streptococcus, or necrotizing fasciitis etc.
But this, this surreptitious audio-recording business, is new territory. On par is unknowingly being on speakerphone with who knows who. Once, I came to give a patient a new diagnosis of HIV infection. We sent out the visitor at the bedside. I thought I had the green light only to have the patient scramble to turn off their phone in fright when I mentioned the results of the test many minutes into our conversation. Too bad!
To be fair, there have been times patients or their families ask for permission. Permission to take notes. Permission to call somebody and have them on speakerphone. Permission to record me. Other times, it is not so much that they ask for permission but they instruct me on what they will be doing. At no time have I said no or objected. But each time, I will admit, I’m unsettled. I ask myself, why? Why do they want to write these tomes or keep audio recordings?
Sadly I foresee this happening more often. I’m not sure what the right response should be. Maybe next time I too should whip out my smartphone and record our discussion. Fair?
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