Which patient right protects the privacy of a patient’s medical information?

• A. Privacy and confidentiality
• B. Right to informed consent
• C. Right to a second opinion
• D. Right to refuse treatment

Answer: (A)

The issue here is protecting patient information. Privacy and confidentiality together shield a patient’s medical details from being disclosed without proper authorization. Privacy means the patient controls who can access their personal and health information. Confidentiality is the obligation of healthcare providers to keep that information secure and not share it without consent.

In practice, this means keeping medical records secure, talking about a patient’s condition in private settings, and obtaining a patient’s consent before sharing information with family, other clinicians, or outside entities. Legal protections, such as health information privacy laws, reinforce these duties and set standards for when information can be shared.

The other rights are important for different reasons but don’t specifically protect privacy of information. Informed consent relates to understanding and agreeing to a proposed treatment; the right to a second opinion concerns obtaining another professional evaluation; and the right to refuse treatment involves autonomous choice about care. None of these directly address who may access a patient’s private medical information.