From the Tages-Anzeiger from 11.1.2016:
In mid-November, a psychiatrist had to stand trial before the Zurich District Court on charges of violating professional secrecy. He was accused of not having written a sensitive, comprehensive report on a patient himself, but of having commissioned an external typing office to do so. Specifically, the doctor had dictated his findings on tape and transmitted the material to the office, which transcribed the dictation. However, the doctor failed to obtain the patient’s consent for the transmission of the medical report, although he would have been legally obliged to do so, according to the indictment.
The court, however, saw it differently. The typing office is a so-called auxiliary of the physician. They are subject to the same duty of confidentiality as the employees of medical practices and hospitals. Therefore, the psychiatrist had not violated his duty of confidentiality by using the external service offer..
But as is always the case when highly sensitive data, which includes in particular those relating to personal health, are processed by outsiders, the question of data protection arises. According to Francis Meier, spokesman for the Federal Data Protection Commissioner, it is in principle permissible to use the services of external typing offices, but doctors themselves are responsible for maintaining professional secrecy. They would have to ensure that the transcription office only processed the data in the way they were allowed to do so themselves. Doctors would also have to make sure that the data was transmitted in encrypted form and that no unauthorized persons could access it. However, patient consent is not required, when a physician delegates the processing of patient data to external auxiliaries.