Vertraulichkeit der Kundendaten is the duty to keep what a pharmacy learns about a person inside the pharmacy. It is older than data protection law and in some ways stricter, because the pharmaceutical Schweigepflicht is a professional secret protected by criminal law and binds everyone on the premises, the trainee and the delivery driver included. Health data is also the most sensitive category the DSGVO recognises, and a blood draw or a measurement produces precisely that.
The secret is wider than the result. That a person made an appointment at all, the reason given for it, the answers on the Anamnese form, a sample tube with a name on it and a note in the diary are all part of it. Agreeing to the service is not agreeing to circulation, and the Aufklärung und Einwilligung conversation is where the pharmacy says plainly who will see what.
Inside the pharmacy, access follows need. The person carrying out the service and the pharmacist responsible for it need the record. Colleagues who are curious, or who merely share the counter, do not, and the folder does not circulate through the back room. Workstations are locked when they are left, appointment lists are turned face down rather than displayed, and the names of the day are not readable by the next person in the queue.
Handover has its own rules. A result is discussed where it cannot be overheard, which in practice means the Beratungsraum rather than the counter. It goes to the person it concerns, in a closed envelope if it leaves the room, and to a spouse, an adult child or a driver only where that person has said so. On the telephone a voice cannot be verified, so the workable practice is a callback to a number the person gave, no result to whoever happens to answer, and nothing on an answering machine beyond a request to call back. A result never waits on the counter for collection and never travels in a bag with a name on the outside.
The failures here are rarely dramatic. They are a printout left face up, a name spoken across the shop, or a report handed to the second customer of that surname. The consequence is a complaint to the supervisory authority, a question of Haftung and, more immediately, a customer who does not return and explains why to others. Storage is governed separately and set out under Aufbewahrungsfristen, but the working principle is short. Nothing is kept longer than it is needed and nothing is kept where it can be read in passing.
This glossary entry is general information about German pharmacy law and practice. It is not legal advice. For binding guidance on your own pharmacy, contact your Landesapothekerkammer.
