I'm sorry to hear about your FIL.
RE: patient confidentiality, from my experience, there is none. The nurse at my gynae office used to talk openly at the reception area to patients about their medications or scan results etc in full hearing shot - more than once I heard some pretty intimate details that really ought not to have been aired like that.
I ended up saying something once when I was paying my bill in a doctor's office and had full view of a few patient names, addresses and their medications... Of course, when I told the receptionist she should consider covering files when people are at the desk, I just got that "blank stare" - so I told her I knew "Bob Green at River Valley Rd" (pointing at his name) and he probably didn't want me knowing he was taking anti-depressants... She still didn't get it.
