Some good-lovin' no?
When a Texas internal medicine physician began a consensual romantic relationship with one of his patients, the state medical board meted out a $10,000 fine and 10 hours of ethics education as a punishment for professional misconduct.
The decision sparked the ire of medical blogger Dr. Chris Rangel, who noted that the consensual relationship between two adults resulted in more severe penalties than many medical mistakes that actually hurt patients.
Among the rest of the disciplinary actions there is the case where a feeding tube was inserted in the wrong patient, a failure to perform an adequate eye exam on a patient with eye trauma, and the failure to meet standards of care in a high risk obstetrical patient, and none of the punishments in these cases came anywhere near what the board dishes out for doctor-patient trysts.
A sexual relationship, even a consensual one, between a doctor and their patient is certainly improper. This is not the issue. Rather, the problem is with the bizarre set of priories that the T.M.B. has developed over the last few years in which they have focused more and more on unprofessional conduct violations involving sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll esp. in cases where the harm or potential harm to the public was none or minimal.
Dr. Rangel notes later that if the physician had terminated his professional relationship to the patient, and referred her to another physician before getting involved with her, the conduct wouldn’t have been viewed as unprofessional in the eyes of the board.
But getting involved with former patients is still frowned on by the American Medical Association, which argues that the relative position of the patient within the relationship makes it difficult to give meaningful consent.
Relationships between patients and…physicians may also include considerable trust, intimacy, or emotional dependence. The length of the former relationship, the extent to which the patient has confided personal or private information to the physician, the nature of the patient’s medical problem, and the degree of emotional dependence that the patient has on the physician, all may contribute to the intimacy of the relationship. In addition, the extent of the physician’s general knowledge about the patient (i.e., the patient’s past, the patient’s family situation, and the patient’s current emotional state) is also a factor that may render a sexual or romantic relationship with a former patient unethical.
For an excellent discussion of the ethics of doctor-patient romance, read this post from The Doctor Will See You Now blog.
And to hear more from Dr. Rangel, read the full post, “Why Is the Texas Medical Board Hooked on Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-roll?”
What do you think? Is a doctor-patient romance a serious infraction or a minor mistake? If the patient is of sound mind and not complaining, should medical regulators care?
When a Texas internal medicine physician began a consensual romantic relationship with one of his patients, the state medical board meted out a $10,000 fine and 10 hours of ethics education as a punishment for professional misconduct.
The decision sparked the ire of medical blogger Dr. Chris Rangel, who noted that the consensual relationship between two adults resulted in more severe penalties than many medical mistakes that actually hurt patients.
Among the rest of the disciplinary actions there is the case where a feeding tube was inserted in the wrong patient, a failure to perform an adequate eye exam on a patient with eye trauma, and the failure to meet standards of care in a high risk obstetrical patient, and none of the punishments in these cases came anywhere near what the board dishes out for doctor-patient trysts.
A sexual relationship, even a consensual one, between a doctor and their patient is certainly improper. This is not the issue. Rather, the problem is with the bizarre set of priories that the T.M.B. has developed over the last few years in which they have focused more and more on unprofessional conduct violations involving sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll esp. in cases where the harm or potential harm to the public was none or minimal.
Dr. Rangel notes later that if the physician had terminated his professional relationship to the patient, and referred her to another physician before getting involved with her, the conduct wouldn’t have been viewed as unprofessional in the eyes of the board.
But getting involved with former patients is still frowned on by the American Medical Association, which argues that the relative position of the patient within the relationship makes it difficult to give meaningful consent.
Relationships between patients and…physicians may also include considerable trust, intimacy, or emotional dependence. The length of the former relationship, the extent to which the patient has confided personal or private information to the physician, the nature of the patient’s medical problem, and the degree of emotional dependence that the patient has on the physician, all may contribute to the intimacy of the relationship. In addition, the extent of the physician’s general knowledge about the patient (i.e., the patient’s past, the patient’s family situation, and the patient’s current emotional state) is also a factor that may render a sexual or romantic relationship with a former patient unethical.
For an excellent discussion of the ethics of doctor-patient romance, read this post from The Doctor Will See You Now blog.
And to hear more from Dr. Rangel, read the full post, “Why Is the Texas Medical Board Hooked on Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-roll?”
What do you think? Is a doctor-patient romance a serious infraction or a minor mistake? If the patient is of sound mind and not complaining, should medical regulators care?
