Privacy and Japanese hospitals
...ate of being apart from company or observation,h and it also shows gsecrecyh as the third definition. (http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm) We, Japanese understand these definitions very well, and of course these ideas exist in our culture. What disease the patient has should be kept secret, shouldnft it? As one of Japanese, it is very embarrassing for me to say this. However, I believe that Japanese doctors and authorities should change their ideas and reform the buildings of hospitals and clinics. Suppose you visit a clinic or hospital, and finish the office routine at the front desk, you are called your name from a nurse, and asked literally, gHow are you today?h loudly. You have no other choice but to answer the question in order to be heard by the nurse. This looks a kind of enforcement of self-revealing a secret; violation of privacy. It is very easy to improve the matter. All they have to do is change the way of communication. They should use a document. Not many clinics and hospitals try to change this way of questioning. The next step is to wait for a doctor consultation in the inside waiting room, while someone has basic examinations like taking your temperature by clamping the thermometer under your armpit. Entering this room you notice soon that you can hear the conversations between a doctor and the last patient before you from the doctorfs office, because your waiting room and the doctorfs office are just divided by the curtains and the thin partition walls in many clinics and hospitals. Probably the matters can be improved by just reforming the inside of the building. But, most hospitals and clinics donft do that. Why do doctors let this condition stay as they are? When you enter the doctorfs office at last, you also see the unbelievable scenery. Several patientsf files are put on the doctorfs desk in a line by nurses, so you can see who has a doctorfs consultation. Do you believe it? Does it happen in America? Other problems for privacy exist in hospitals and clinics without limitation. For example, some hospitals show the name ca...