Bioethics Discussion Blog: Physician Wearing Two Hats and Patient’s Best Interest

REMINDER: I AM POSTING A NEW TOPIC ABOUT ONCE A WEEK OR PERHAPS TWICE A WEEK. HOWEVER, IF YOU DON'T FIND A NEW TOPIC POSTED, THERE ARE AS OF MARCH 2013 OVER 900 TOPIC THREADS TO WHICH YOU CAN READ AND WRITE COMMENTS. I WILL BE AWARE OF EACH COMMENTARY AND MAY COME BACK WITH A REPLY.

TO FIND A TOPIC OF INTEREST TO YOU ON THIS BLOG, SIMPLY TYPE IN THE NAME OR WORDS RELATED TO THE TOPIC IN THE FIELD IN THE LEFT HAND SIDE AT TOP OF THE PAGE AND THEN CLICK ON “SEARCH BLOG”. WITH WELL OVER 900 TOPICS, MOST ABOUT GENERAL OR SPECIFIC ETHICAL ISSUES BUT NOT NECESSARILY RELATED TO ANY SPECIFIC DATE OR EVENT, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND WHAT YOU WANT. IF YOU DON’T PLEASE WRITE TO ME ON THE FEEDBACK THREAD OR BY E-MAIL DoktorMo@aol.com

IMPORTANT REQUEST TO ALL WHO COMMENT ON THIS BLOG: ALL COMMENTERS WHO WISH TO SIGN ON AS ANONYMOUS NEVERTHELESS PLEASE SIGN OFF AT THE END OF YOUR COMMENTS WITH A CONSISTENT PSEUDONYM NAME OR SOME INITIALS TO HELP MAINTAIN CONTINUITY AND NOT REQUIRE RESPONDERS TO LOOK UP THE DATE AND TIME OF THE POSTING TO DEFINE WHICH ANONYMOUS SAID WHAT. Thanks. ..Maurice

FEEDBACK,FEEDBACK,FEEDBACK! WRITE YOUR FEEDBACK ABOUT THIS BLOG, WHAT IS GOOD, POOR AND CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT TO THIS FEEDBACK THREAD

Monday, December 13, 2004

Physician Wearing Two Hats and Patient’s Best Interest

The doctor’s duty, by law, to report to authorities evidence which may be related to criminality in the patient history such as gunshot or stab wounds or other trauma or alcohol or drug blood levels is an example of a physician’s potential conflict of interest. This conflict can deny their professional goal of providing care that is in their patient’s best interest. The physician is faced with a decision of protecting his/her own self-interest by abiding by the law or following the professional ethical standards of patient confidentiality and attempting to ensure the patient’s best interest. But would the physician’s ignoring the longer-term psychosocial implications of the gunshot wound or drug level by treating the immediate problem be really in the patient’s best interest? (This again sets the question of the definition of “patient’s best interest”. Is it the goals, values and decisions of the patient or the perhaps paternalistic definition by the physician?)

One view of the work of physicians is that as part of the privileges that society has given to them is to be responsible not only to the patient but also to protect the health and safety of the greater community. The requirement of physicians to report to health officials communicable diseases is an example. Most physicians would probably not disagree with that duty. Reporting suspected child or elder abuse may pose difficulties at times since the physician may be unsure whether true abuse has really occurred and may worry about the consequences to innocents of his/her reporting.

There is, on the other hand, another view that the role of the physician as desired by society is one of healing the patient and not the simultaneous role of a policeman—“wearing of two hats”. Physicians are instructed by professional societies to avoid entering into situations where they may compromise their responsibility to the patient by the other role such as participating in the medical evaluation of prisoners scheduled for execution or in the execution process itself.

This posting provides an example of another conflict of interest that plagues physicians. I have noted others in previous postings and will likely describe others later. ..Maurice.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home