Privacy Rules!

I recently spent a good amount of time in a hospital (visiting!).

I was amazed at the rules and regulations they have now concerning privacy.
Patient Charts are no longer at the foot of the bed; computer screens are covered or the monitors go almost immediately into a screen-saver mode; the elevators caution care providers NOT to discuss patients while in the elevators:
CAUTION:
DO NOT DISCUSS PAITIENTS WHILE IN THE ELEVATOR!
It gave me confidence that a patient’s right to privacy was being respected.

At one point, my cousin (who I was visiting) had to have a surgical procedure.
When we went in to the waitng room, a woman asked us the patient’s name and then assigned us a number. She told us that to respect the patient’s right to privacy, we would now be referred to as #1; no names, Please! When the procedure was over, a doctor would “summon” us, and we would be referred to simply as #1. Families of other patients soon joined us (numbers 2-7, respectively).
And we all waited.

The phone rang: “OK, Thank you” I heard the receptionist say.
Then she called out:
“Number 3, Number 3 please!”
pause
“Reynolds family! Family of John Reynolds!”
So much for privacy… but wait, it gets better.

A few minutes latter, a doctor came out and called “Mrs. Reynolds…?”
Mrs Reynolds stood up and I could clearly hear WAY more information than I ever wanted to hear about Mr Reynolds stomach operation…
Ouch!

So: the not so private privacy rules go out the window for expediency.
I can’t imagine the number of embarrassing situations that arise from this!

Anyway: Privacy Rules are clearly not important in some areas of the hospital.

Whatever…