Patient-Recorded Office Visits Concerning Some Physicians

These interventions may not work as well in one-party states, because only the person recording would need to give consent; however, some jurisdictions may limit the admissibility of the recordings in the case of a court action.

Practitioners should begin thinking about what their personal views are on patients taping interactions in general and doing so secretly in particular. Working through the personal and ethical issues beforehand should make the encounter go more smoothly when (not if) it happens.

“We haven’t had that many cases where patients asked us to record the conversation,” said Watson. “But we also know that it may be happening at a higher level without us knowing about it, because the technology is easily hidden. Our physicians are usually agreeable when it comes up, because they want to make sure that all involved in the patient’s treatment get the information they need for success.”

Kurt Ullman is a freelance medical writer based in Indiana.

Adapted from “Off the Record,” which was published in the August 2015 issue of The Rheumatologist, with permission from the American College of Rheumatology.