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Siegel, Leah Linder

Nursing

2014

MS

Adolescents forego reproductive health care services if they feel that their confidentiality may be at risk. This has been found across health care settings, including at school-based health centers (SBHC), despite the commitments of SBHCs to protect confidentiality. State and federal laws exist to protect the reproductive health care confidentiality of minors, yet experts in the field have reported various potential threats to confidentiality that may lead to inadvertent breaches of health care information. However, to date, no research has been published investigating the frequency of these potential inadvertent breaches in any health care setting, including at SBHCs. This descriptive survey pilot study investigated SBHC provider-reported barriers to reproductive health care confidentiality in the SBHC setting and sought to gain insight into how often these barriers were resulting in actual disclosures of confidential information.
A survey was emailed to approximately 103 SBHC providers in three northeastern states. Twenty-one providers submitted completed surveys for a response rate of 20%. A majority of providers reported various potential barriers to confidentiality. Yet, 47.6% of providers reported that students and parents never report a breach of confidentiality, and for the 38.1% and 33.3% of providers who reported that students and parents do inform them of breaches, these providers indicated that this happens less than once per month. In this sample, actual breaches of confidentiality are a rare occurrence in the SBHC setting. Future research with a larger sample population is needed to draw further conclusions about confidentiality breaches at SBHCs.