Physical factors that influence patients’ privacy perception toward a psychiatric behavioral monitoring system: a qualitative study

Abstract

Background

Psychiatric patients have privacy concerns when it comes to technology intervention in the hospital setting. In this paper, we present scenarios for psychiatric behavioral monitoring systems to be placed in psychiatric wards to understand patients’ perception regarding privacy. Psychiatric behavioral monitoring refers to systems that are deemed useful in measuring clinical outcomes, but little research has been done on how these systems will impact patients’ privacy.

Methods

We conducted a case study in one teaching hospital in Malaysia. We investigated the physical factors that influence patients’ perceived privacy with respect to a psychiatric monitoring system. The eight physical factors identified from the information system development privacy model, a comprehensive model for designing a privacy-sensitive information system, were adapted in this research. Scenario-based interviews were conducted with 25 patients in a psychiatric ward for 3 months.

Results

Psychiatric patients were able to share how physical factors influence their perception of privacy. Results show how patients responded to each of these dimensions in the context of a psychiatric behavioral monitoring system.

Conclusion

Some subfactors under physical privacy are modified to reflect the data obtained in the interviews. We were able to capture the different physical factors that influence patient privacy.

Keywords:

• information system development (ISD)
• physical factor
• privacy
• psychiatric monitoring system

Acknowledgments

All major work for this research was financially supported by King Saud University, Deanship of Scientific Research, Research Chairs, and The Research Chair of Health Informatics and Promotion.

Author contributions

Both authors contributed to the conception and design, acquisition of data, and analysis and interpretation of data. Both revised the important intellectual content of the manuscript before the final approval for publication. Both authors are accountable for all aspects of the study.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.