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It was 2006 and my spouse and I were seated in the waiting room of my obstetrician's office. I was expecting our first baby and just there for a normal check-up. It was an early morning appointment, so there was only one other patient in the waiting room with us. I recall noticing her because she looked young and she wasn't noticeably pregnant (like patients who joined me in the waiting room usually were.) The assistant called her back by name just before they called me back.

As my spouse and I sat in the exam room and talked, we heard the OB/GYN open the door to the exam room next door and greet the person who had been in the waiting room with us. Then, we very clearly heard a discussion between them about how the woman had engaged in some hazardous practices and now was worried she had become infected with an STD. My spouse and I looked at each other stunned that we had been privy to information that was positively none of our business. We also did not like the fact that, if we could overhear them as clearly as if they were seated in the room beside us, then they obviously could hear us and our confidential conversations as well.

Before the obstetrician came into the room, I attempted to find out the answer to why the noise was carrying so well between both rooms. I found out that the area had been retrofitted to fit the needs of this medical practice and that the wall between both rooms butted up against a window. There was about a centimeter of space between the window and the wall and that was the culprit of the sound leak.

Besides it being an obvious breach of HIPAA laws, this type of problem could potentially effect a doctor's relationship with and care that they give to a client. If the patient notices that what they tell their doctor is not 100% confidential, they could be more nervous to give out specifics that could be relative to what care they should be receiving. The trust between a person and a doctor should be fostered and guarded and this kind of disregard for the confidentiality of what is shared could be harmful to that.

A straightforward solution for the problem would be to outfit the place with sound masking technology. With the addition of some slight background noise in each room, it would not have been nearly so easy to hear discussions in other rooms.