Privacy versus accountability: a health care dilemma

Social work practitioners are obligated both to document their services to clients and to protect information about their clients from unwarranted access and use. In the current environment of social work practice in the health care field, these obligations often conflict. This article describes and offers solutions to the dilemma of privacy versus accountability. If social workers maximize the protection offered by the four principles of privacy: confidentiality, anonymity, client access, and abridgment , they can safeguard personal information while still meeting accountability standards.