Ethics Guidance for Occupational Health Practice 9th Edition - Book - Page 69
3.139. Recording may also be undertaken by the health professional to ensure that
there is an accurate record of the consultation. A clear policy should be
developed detailing the process, consent, storage and deletion if Occupational
Health professionals are to undertake this activity. Steps should be taken to
ensure that recordings made under such circumstances cannot be edited.
3.140. Given the increasing ease with which consultations can be recorded using
modern technology, occupational health professionals should be aware that
workers may record an assessment without the practitioner’s knowledge. Such
recordings may, in some circumstances, be admissible as evidence. It may be
advisable for services to include a local statement acknowledging that covert or
overt recording may occur, and to encourage workers to inform the practitioner
if they intend to record the consultation. This approach promotes transparency,
supports trust, and ensures that all parties are aware of how information from
the consultation may be used.
Personal communication
3.141. Society may have an expectation of higher professional standards from health
professionals than the wider population. Care needs to be exercised with all
electronic communication. It should be assumed that anything and everything
written and/or transmitted electronically may be intercepted and/or read by
third parties. This is particularly important for communications regarding
workers. A test would be to consider whether the content of any electronic
dialogue about workers would be deemed unprofessional if viewed by a third
party. This is also significant with the popularity of the option to ‘reply to all.’
3.142. Some messaging applications offer end to end encryption. While this means
that it is highly unlikely messages will be intercepted and read while they are
travelling from one phone to another, there is still a risk that the contents could
be read by third parties. This can happen if one of the people in the
conversation takes a screenshot of the conversation or if the device
automatically backs up the conversation, allowing it to be read in the event
of loss or theft. As these circumstances cannot be controlled, caution should be
exercised when discussing potentially sensitive information.
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