Your Right to Patient Privacy
At CMN, our principles and values are unwavering: we believe in compassionate care and multi-dimensional treatment that fights cancer aggressively while stimulating emotional and mental healing. We firmly stand by our treatment program, yet our website does not include any visual patient testimonies (only anonymous written reviews, accessible here). This is because we believe in your right to privacy.
Why Patient Privacy Matters: A Doctor’s Promise
Doctors and medical professionals are legally held to laws and guidelines that protect every patient’s right to privacy. We greatly value your trust and will never compromise or break that. CMN Hospital takes the cultivation of a private environment a step further; when you come to CMN, you have a personal room to yourself only (no sharing rooms), and each room comes with a door you are welcome to close as often as you’d like. This is drastically different from most traditional hospitals, where most are housed two patients in a room with sliding curtains for ‘doors.’ We do this also because it has been noted that patients' health may suffer when it is convenient for doctors to make their rounds. For example, this may be seen in “the prevalence of constipation amongst inpatients using a bed pan behind screens in a six-bedded bay while regularly being asked if they ‘are finished’. I wonder why we pull the curtains around the bed space before a patient consultation. The implication that if we can’t be seen, we won’t be heard is futile.”[1] CMN recognizes the significance of your cancer battle, and we want to go above and beyond and take any extra steps (even literally) needed to ensure you receive the privacy you deserve.
Patient Privacy and You
Patient privacy does not just exist in a hospital, clinic, or waiting room; with technological advances, privacy is becoming a larger concern, especially on social media sites. Personal sharing websites like Facebook and Twitter have only come about within the last fifteen years, yet their presence has been largely impactful and brings about new meanings of privacy and what you consider personal.[2][3]
We often choose what we share on our social networking sites, just as we do with our friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and family members; each person is unique, and so is what they choose to share. Some people may want to update you about daily life nuances, while others save posts for special occasions. Both are right in their way, and all are okay. However, the differences in what unique individuals choose to share can result in a disconnect best described as an entitlement because when some people share a lot, they feel they deserve to receive a lot in return.
“Entitlement, or sense that we have the right to have something can be a healthy expectation. It is, for example, a normal part of a child’s psychological development to think that he or she is the center of the world. Sometimes called healthy narcissism or egocentrism, it is part of how a child views the world in the early stages of cognitive and emotional development.”[4] However, this is starkly different from people in your life (whether you know them well or not) feeling entitled to know about your medical history: what hospital you chose, why you decided to undergo alternative treatment, how much you paid… the list goes on.
You do not have to share anything that you do not want to about your cancer journey; you don’t have to share anything at all, but you are also more than welcome to keep a public blog, share daily updates, or once-a-month open letters. It is all up to you. Even if you are fundraising publicly on a site like GoFundMe, you do not have to disclose any information about your medical history or personal feelings if you do not want to. You do not owe anyone anything other than a “thank you for caring.” Recognize that while you are fighting cancer cells physically, you are also experiencing changes and growing mentally and emotionally: you are a rich human being with many dimensions, and your journey deserves to be a priority because it is unlike any other.
For More Information
CMN sees you as a human being with innate rights first and a person battling cancer second. Your value lies far beyond your health status, and you deserve to be treated in a way that reflects that. Here at CMN, we work endlessly to cultivate an environment you are comfortable in. We provide cutting-edge alternative cancer treatment while taking every step necessary to ensure your privacy is protected, even after completing the program and checking out of our hospital. To learn more about the treatments we offer, especially those that engage you in healing mentally and emotionally, click here to contact us. You can also email us at info@cmnact.com.
