Prayer Lists and Patient Privacy

One of the most curious things to me about the modern church is the graphic medical detail of the prayer list. In the past years, I’ve seen prayer requests ranging from “Bleeding Liver” to “Colon Exploded”. I have a pretty weak stomach when it comes to other people’s medical issues, and reading a graphic prayer lists makes me want to add my name to the bottom of the list. Before I proceed, let me affirm my deep belief in prayer and its power in real situations. I am not against praying for the needs of others at all.

Since the inception of HIPPA, health organizations providing care are not allowed to transmit any patient information to unauthorized persons. The church or ministry however is not required to keep a patient’s information private unless they operate a care facility.

Imagine this scenario for a moment. You have an embarrassing medical situation that you would prefer to keep to yourself and your immediate family. One of your family members fills out a prayer request form with detailed information about you. That information gets broadcast to the entire church on the big screens during prayer meeting. Upon your recovery, you return to church and are inundated with questions and concerns about your embarrassing medical situation.  And then there are those who avoid you because they might think you’re contagious. I personally, wouldn’t want to be in that situation.

If health care facilities are held to such a high standard with patient information, I think the church should follow suit for a few reasons.

1. We should never disenfranchise someone who is sick (Example: someone with AIDS)
2. We should never embarrass someone who is sick
3. We should do our best to curtail the gossip circles

If a prayer request is submitted by a third party:

• Keep the extreme details vague when communicating with your prayer team. Instead of “Burst Colon”, say “So-and-so has been hospitalized and needs our prayers immediately.” This also helps people like me with weak stomachs.
• Place a checkbox on your form indicating that the submitting party has permission to share this information publicly
• Make sure any third-party prayer requests are moderated before being sent to the big screens or bulletin.

I think it would be wise for leaders to communicate with their congregations on a mid-week about the importance of handling patient information wisely. We definitely need to pray for the sick as it is biblical. However, we should not go about praying for the sick in a manner that will harm the patient.

Here are some suggestions and tools to help you wisely manage patient information in prayer lists.

1. Stop putting prayer requests on the big screens. When your church grows, this is a task that WILL grow to be unmaintainable.
2. Use Prayer Engine for a moderated web and prayer team communications solution.
3. Define your process of prayer request submission and dissemination with a flow chart from Gliffy.
4. For more information about ministry and HIPAA, read this article.