Continuing on in our series we will now talk about abandonment and terminating the physician-patient relationship. We’ve previously talked about the contract and consent. Then we moved on to medical malpractice and causation. Finally we discussed informed consent. Now we move on to abandonment.

Abandonment is the concept whereby a physician terminates the physician-patient relationship without reasonable notice at a time when the patient still has need of medical attention. This typically is prevented by giving the patient adequate time to find a replacement physician, planning for adequate post-procedure follow up, and giving the patient adequate instruction for care when the patient is not in the presence of the physician. Read more →

A physician frequently gets stopped in the hall of the hospital or gets paged by another doctor for an unofficial consult. In medicine, this is called a “curbside consult.” Essentially, one physician would like some input on a case without getting the consulting physician officially involved in the patient’s care. Typically, this is done because the primary physician either knows the answer already but wants to run it by someone else. Or because he thinks the problem is not major enough to warrant an official consult. If an official consult is requested it will require the consulting physician to see the patient, write a consultation note, as well as dictate a consultation note. Read more →

In response to my last post about informed consent in my Medicine and Law series, several commenters made the point that informed consent is more than just getting a form signed. That ideally it should involve a dialogue between patient and doctor. That the burden of trust is on the doctor to inform the patient so that the patient actually understands what the risks and benefits are. That the doctor should empower the patient to make the choice. Read more →

I’ve decided to go ahead and post a series on Medicine and the Law. One of the things I hear about so often from both sides of the patient-physician relationship is the fear and threat of legal action. Typically physicians are paranoid of being sued. They practice defensive medicine and go out of their way to write copious notes, dictate exhaustive patient summaries and operative reports. For the practicing physician, all the documentation, paperwork, and reporting is simply exhausting. Sometimes all of the documentation takes up way more time and energy than the actual exam or procedure. It is a sad state of affairs when 90% of the time allocated to a patient is dedicated to documentation rather than with actual time with the patient. Read more →

Women deal with so many stressors in life and that is not to say men do not. It is just that women seem to take on more as wives, mothers and daughters. This is an addition to career stress which adds to an already full life. Stress is a normal response that we feel when we are overwhelmed and overworked. There are many women walking around permanently stressed out. How do we and how should we deal with the stress in our lives in productive ways? Read more →

I have an announcement so earth-shaking that I will, just for today, suspend all scientific citations. I am here to liberate you from a great deal of suffering.

I hereby give you permission to go to bed angry.

Here are ten perfectly good reasons: Read more →