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Abstract
A 2007 article objects strenuously to hospital chaplains' practice of accessing and documenting in patients' medical records. This essay examines the ethical issues underlying this challenge, including confidentiality and privacy, the role of chaplains on health care teams, patients' expectations of chaplains, and the distinctiveness of spirituality. It also considers chaplains' actual documentation practices and the rationales offered to support them. The article concludes that there is a reasonable basis for chaplains' access to and documentation in patients' records, and proposes principles and priorities to guide confidentiality-related practices. Chaplains have a responsibility to inform patients that they chart and to engage reservations which patients may have.
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Notes on contributors
David B. McCurdy
David B. McCurdy DMin BCC is senior ethics consultant and director of organizational ethics at Advocate Health Care, Park Ridge, IL. He is endorsed by the United Church of Christ and also serves as adjunct faculty, religious studies at Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, IL.