Health care has many important aspects of legal responsibility, one of the most significant being privileged communications. Privileged communications consist of all information given to health care personnel by a patient; by law, this information must be kept confidential and shared only with other members of the patient's health care team. But certain information is exempt by law and must be reported. Examples of exempt information are injuries caused by violence, drug abuse, and sexually transmitted diseases.

Injuries caused by violence are considered exempt from confidentiality because it is very important to know before following through with any health procedure that the patient is mentally and physically able to undergo any examinations. For example, if a patient was abused as a child, he or she may be uncomfortable with being touched when treated. Also, a physician must know whether a person was stabbed before because the patient might...