With The Rise Of Zoom Being Used For Doctor’s Appointments, What Are The Laws Around Third Parties Being Present Without The Patient’s Consent?

I’m in the U.S. I’ve had several instances of a third party being present in my zoom call without my consent. I have complex PTSD from 10+ years of lack of consent in medical and therapeutic settings, and this is massively distressing for me. It is a small town, and I often will run into medical workers I went to high school with, which is why it’s such a concern. I’m not going to sue anyone, I just can’t find good information on this to understand what the laws are.

Scenario 1: Nurse greets me (virtually) to check me in before seeing my psychiatrist. Nurse asks how I am and we have a full conversation about my life. Nurse then alludes to someone they’ve been introducing to everyone, who is the new receptionist. I freeze up because I don’t see anyone, and ask what’s going on. I had it on a different view setting, and apparently the receptionist had been present the entire time. I just couldn’t see them.

Scenario 2: The following appointment, I ask the nurse if anyone else is in the Zoom meeting. Nurse says no. Nurse moves me to the virtual room my psychiatrist in, who starts speaking about another person I can’t see. I duck out of the camera and ask what’s going on. There is a student present, and the nurse was apparently supposed to ask for my consent to have them in the session. The student immediately apologized and left.

My psych was horrified. I expressed confusion and referenced scenario 1, which my psych knew nothing about. Due to being autistic, I could not read what was happening with my psychiatrist’s reaction. They kept trailing off about lack of consent and how mistakes like that are not okay, and we shifted focus to my session.

I’ve since emailed the office and haven’t heard back for a week, which is very unusual.

My psychiatrist and the student did nothing wrong in scenario 2, but the nurse did in both. How bad is this overall?