Adolescent Confidentiality Policy

At Pediatric Associates at Northwoods, we are committed to providing the best possible medical care for your child, from infancy through their young adult years.

We hope that as your child grows, our relationship with them will also grow.

Adolescence is a special time of transition in the lives of both children and their parents. One of the developmental tasks of adolescents is to establish their own sense of self and autonomy. This is a “work in progress” throughout the teen years. We hope that our office is a safe place for them to stretch this muscle and learn to gradually take increasing responsibility for their own lives. This includes taking responsibility for making good health decisions and discussing these with their own healthcare provider. Individual teens do this at different rates and different ages.

As teenagers begin to take more control of their own health, sometimes they may not feel comfortable sharing all health concerns with their parents. We consider the relationship between parents and their adolescents to be of utmost importance. At the same time, it is essential that teens feel free to share information with their healthcare providers with the expectation that it will be kept private. Many teenagers say worries about confidentiality are a big reason they may avoid seeking medical care or guidance. Thus, we have developed the following principles in guiding our care of adolescent patients:



1. Starting around age 13, we may spend part of a teen’s wellness visit alone with them. This is an opportunity for teens to become more comfortable speaking alone with an adult healthcare provider, something they will need to do as an adult.
2. Sometimes a teenager may decide that they prefer to have a parent in the exam room with them while they see us. This request will be honored. If they request one, a chaperone can be provided. 
3.  When teens share something with us that they ask to remain confidential, we will honor their request. This means it will not be shared with others (including parents) without their permission. This includes phone conversations we have with your teen. To promote the ability to have private discussions, we may ask your teen for their cell phone and may give them our office contact information as well.
4. We are always happy to speak with parents as well, either with or without teens present. A parent’s perspective and concerns are of great relevance to their child’s care. If we can, we will provide reassurance and answer general questions. However, we will not disclose information your teen has asked us to keep confidential.
5. Sometimes our private discussions with adolescents are about things we feel should be shared with their parents. In these situations, we encourage them to be open with their parents and may offer to broach a topic and facilitate discussion. We will respect their decision except in extreme circumstances (see #6).
6.  In rare situations, we may determine it is necessary to break confidentiality. This will only occur if someone is in imminent danger of harm to themselves or others. If we must break confidentiality, we will make every effort to tell the teenager before we do so, and look for alternative solutions.

The above guidelines are in accordance with Massachusetts law, general principles of medical ethics, and the policies of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.
We hope parents will trust that we are taking the best possible care of their children and understand that we have established this policy to this end.

When your child turns 13 years old, access is automatically transitioned to limit the services the parent/legal guardian has access to. The parent account becomes a proxy account. This occurs throughout the broader Massachusetts General Brigham Organization and is not in our control.

At this time, we encourage your child to create an email account so that our office can issue an activation code directly to your child for the purpose of opening a full MyChart account in their name. Patient Gateway access for teens and their parent/guardian (“Proxy”) is limited as follows:

*The teen and the Patient Gateway proxy have the option to share messages that are sent to the teen’s care.