Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucla-cs!Annoyed.As.Hell@p0.f69.n154.z1.fidonet.org
From: Annoyed.As.Hell@p0.f69.n154.z1.fidonet.org (Annoyed As Hell)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: HIV Status Policy
Message-ID: <38099@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 16 Aug 90 14:47:13 GMT
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Note:	Copyright 1990 by Daniel R. Greening.  Permission granted for
Note:	non-commercial reproduction.
Archive-number: 2385

Recently, I helped a friend get admitted into a Milwaukee Hospital, who is 
diagnosed with AIDS.
 
30 seconds after we sat down in the waiting room, the receptionist called into 
patient admitting, and, in a regular voice audible throughout the waiting room 
o any and all others present "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome-Peunomonia."
 
Additionally, his room has in big black and white letters "Blood & Secretion 
Precautions" for all to see, including visitors and other patients on the 
entire floor!
 
Isn't there some way Doctors, Nurses, and Medical Professionals could refer to 
these patients and this diagnosis, without alarming everyone else within 
earshot?  Couldn't a code, or number, or even a red piece of tape on the 
patients door be used to alert medical personnal of precautionary conditions?  
I cannot tell you how many times I have sat in the doctors office of a major 
physician here in town (with numerous AIDS patients) while names, conditions, 
symptoms or tests (Such as T-cell counts) are spoken of freely and openly.
 
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE CONFIDENTIALITY THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE
ASSURED FOR THESE PATIENTS BY LAW
 
Or is it that I am just one of the few people intelligent enough to know what 
a Doctor or Nurse is talking about?
 
Is there any other way hospitals or clinics in other areas refer to AIDS 
patients, without "disclosing" his/her condition (illegally, I might add).  If 
there is, can someone out there pass this along to the health care 
"professionals" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin?
 
Or should someone just start another million dollar lawsuit for violation of 
these laws?
 
Annoyed

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