Court Opinion

ID: 9529753
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:53:56.294405+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:54.683992
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE BRESLIN, specially concurring: While I agree that pharmacists are not "therapists” as the term is defined by the Confidentiality Act, I disagree with the assertion that a pharmacist’s function is merely that of a supplier of a product. Pharmacists do much more. They maintain extensive patient records and counsel patients on drug interactions. In doing so, they can literally reconstruct a patient’s medical history. Surely the public' has a right to expect that pharmacists will keep the health conditions and treatments of their clients in confidence. For these reasons, I believe pharmacists should have been included within the Act’s definition of therapist. Regretfully, however, they were not. Regardless of the fact that the Act does not apply to pharmacists, plaintiff was not without a remedy. Although the facts alleged in plaintiff’s complaint do not state a cause of action for breach of an implied contract, the facts do appear to make out a claim for public disclosure of private facts. See Miller v. Motorola, Inc., 202 Ill. App. 3d 976, 560 N.E.2d 900 (1990) (outlining the elements of a claim for public disclosure of private facts). While I sympathize with the plaintiff if the statute of limitations may have run on this remedy, that does not justify approving a cause of action that is inappropriate to the facts alleged.