Privacy can be a crappy situation

I recently had a birthday and to celebrate this momentous occasion, my doctor offered me a colonoscopy.

I think I need to school him on what a gift actually is.

Although I feel like this was a crappy gift (oh you know I had to)

I went ahead and made the appointment to have it done.

Now there are a lot of things in life that we must do that we don’t want to, but this ranks right up there with intentional cardio for me.

So, I did the prep (ugh), ate enough Jello to be classified as a solid, and went in bright and early the next morning for the procedure.

“I HATED that drink!”

That is what I heard being screamed beyond the thin curtain dividing myself and another patient who had just arrived for the same procedure.

“Now Mr. Noname, you know that we can’t do this colonoscopy without you doing the prep work like instructed.”

The nurse was trying her best to soothe the agitated fellow.

“I am NOT going home and coming back. You are doing this today!”

“No, we are not. You did not do as instructed.”

“I am not leaving!”

Now I admit, this was a lot like a Lifetime movie that I couldn’t turn off.

That thin curtain of HIPAA strength sure kept his personal information at bay for me.

Insert extreme sarcasm here.

Per usual, this got me thinking about how we protect our member’s privacy during conversations and transactions.

I can’t tell you how many times I have stood a nice distance away from someone in front of me at the teller line and yet have heard every single word.

Sometimes this can’t be helped, but other times I must wonder if we are doing our absolute best to respect the privacy of our members.

Just like Mr. Noname should have not had me listening into what should be a private conversation between a patient and nurse, our members also deserve the safe and secure place to chat with us.

If you have a member that comes to the teller line with some hard questions, offer to take them to a private office so that they may speak more freely.

Some may pass on the option, but some may be extremely thankful that you were able to read the room the way that you did and offer that privacy.

As I sit here today wondering if that gentleman is still sitting with his arms folded on that hospital outpatient bed, I am reminded that we have the opportunity each and every day to make experiences better.

Let’s stop thinking a curtain is enough and do the ‘prep’ to make sure we have the space we would want for our own private conversations.