The pt (47 yr old with twins) was an out-patient who came in for a routine non-stress test. Her friend was sitting in a chair in the room, near us. I was reviewing her history from her chart and mentioned her IVF. The pt glared at me, and I realized I spoke out of line, and tried to back peddle by saying, oh I must have confused you with another patient....and then nothing more was said.
But a few days later she called me up, very angrily, and told me I caused her tremendous distress, because she had not told her friend about the IVF. I felt awful and apologized profusely. She also reported it to my supervisor, who fortunately, was very sympathetic to me. Perhaps because I have worked there for 32 years, and have never had a patient complain about me before.
I guess I hadn't thought of it as highly sensitive information, because we see many IVF patients who generally bring it up freely. Also, if she allowed the friend to stay in the room with her during the test, I figured she was ok with her hearing what went on. Wrong!
So, just putting it out there, so no one else makes the same mistake I did!
