23 hours ago Roles for patients and clinicians. The effectiveness of pain treatments depends greatly on the strength of the clinician-patient relationship; pain treatment is never about the clinician’s intervention alone, but about the clinician and patient (and family) working together. Value of a public health and community-based approach. >> Go To The Portal
In 2010, the National Institutes of Health ( NIH) contracted with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to undertake a study and make recommendations “to increase the recognition of pain as a significant public health problem in the United States.”
Clinical Points. ■ Trust, knowledge, regard, and loyalty are the 4 elements that form the doctor-patient relationship, and the nature of this relationship has an impact on patient outcomes. ■ Factors affecting the doctor-patient relationship can be patient-dependent, provider-dependent, health system–dependent, or due to patient-provider mismatch.
The patient-doctor relationship: a synthesis of the qualitative literature on patients’ perspectives. Br J Gen Pract. 2009;59(561):e116–e133.
Data on the health and economic burdens of chronic pain would guide federal and state governments and health care organizations in their efforts to work toward these objectives.
Normally, the doctor-patient relationship is formed when the patient seeks medical treatment and the doctor agrees to provide the treatment. Doctors are under no legal obligation to undertake the medical care of a patient. Thus, doctors only have a duty of care to those they agree to treat.
A physician must terminate the patient-physician relationship before initiating a dating, romantic, or sexual relationship with a patient. Likewise, sexual or romantic relationships between a physician and a former patient may be unduly influenced by the previous physician-patient relationship.
Trust, knowledge, regard, and loyalty are the 4 elements that form the doctor-patient relationship, and the nature of this relationship has an impact on patient outcomes.
Dual relationships can even exist if and when the physician shares the same illness as the patient [7]. They are not necessarily bad; sharing a common bond can improve mutual understanding and empathy. Friendship may in fact be something that patients need from physicians and can be a positive professional attribute.
Does a delay make a relationship ethical? One in five doctors now say a romantic relationship is permissible—but only after a waiting period of 6-12 months, once the doctor/patient relationship has been terminated.
There is an inherent imbalance of power in a doctor-patient relationship, not to mention in an employer-employee relationship. It's the doctor's responsibility to look out for the patient's best interest. Doctors are held to higher professional and ethical standards than the rest of society.
LePort says the ability to empathize is the most important quality in a healthy doctor-patient partnership. “This (empathy) is the most effective way to gain the trust of a patient and to achieve a truly open, mutually respectful relationship.”
The sorts of ethical issues that emerge may be about patient competence, the sufficiency of information provided to patients, understanding, voluntariness and coercion, authenticity of decision-making and like matters.
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, known as the Poor man's doctor, still serves his patients at the age of 84. He has been treating people for the past 50 years and charges a fee of rupees five only. He examines 40 patients in a day and also treats many poor for free.
Hugging should never be mandatory, Vejar says, but providers should recognize how much a hug might mean to patients. “It lets them know that their presence is welcome, that they are valued, that we care about them, and that they are being heard,” she says.
The professional organizations of psychology (the American Psychological Association) and psychiatry (the American Psychiatric Association) offer no explicit rules about friendships with former patients.
Sometimes doctors and patients meet in the exam room and strike up long-lasting friendships. Other times, doctors take on friends as patients. Some doctors say getting personal enhances care, since providers who know their patients as people are more likely to take a well-rounded, holistic view of their health.
The relationship between doctors and their patients has received philosophical, sociological, and literary attention since Hippocrates, and is the subject of some 8,000 articles, monographs, chapters, and books in the modern medical literature. A robust science of the doctor–patient encounter and relationship can guide decision making in health ...
A series of organizational or system factors also affect the doctor–patient relationship. The accessibility of personnel, both administrative and clinical, and their courtesy level, provide a sense that patients are important and respected, as do reasonable waiting times and attention to personal comfort.
Because the time of visit varies by type of visit, type of doctor, and complexity of the patient, patient complaints about visit time may be a useful patient-centered indicator of potential trouble in doctor–patient relationships. Plans can encourage consideration of psychosocial issues in all forms of patient care.
The expectation of privacy is one of the most important aspects of the doctor–patient relationship and influences the disposition to trust, but confidentiality is no longer solely in the doctor's control.
The first priority is to enhance knowledge, skills, and attitudes of doctors, patients, and plans in the doctor–patient relationship. Currently, neither doctors and patients, nor plans have adequate skills in the doctor–patient relationship. Most doctors currently practicing have never been critically observed interviewing a patient, ...
Managed care organizations thus have conflicting roles and conflicting accountability. An organization's accountability to its member population and to individual members has a series of inherent conflicts.
They often rely on primary care clinicians to manage, coordinate, or restrain access to other services. Members are required to choose or are assigned a primary care physician. With the primary care emphasis comes an opportunityfor the development of strong relationships between primary care doctors and their patients.
In the guidance-cooperation model, a doctor is placed in a position of power due to having medical knowledge that the patient lacks. The doctor is expected to decide what is in the patient’s best interest and to make recommendations accordingly. The patient is then expected to comply with these recommendations.
Placing trust in a doctor helps them maintain or regain their health and well-being. This unique relationship encompasses 4 key elements: mutual knowledge, trust, loyalty, and regard.2Knowledge refers to the doctor’s knowledge of the patient as well as the patient’s knowledge of the doctor.
Knowledge: The doctor and the patient may not know each other. Knowledge: The doctor can learn about a patient’s history by calling the patient’s prior providers and informing the patient that the providers will receive the results of any testing.
The relationship between a patient and a physician is based on trust, which gives rise to physicians’ ethical responsibility to place patients’ welfare above the physician’s own self-interest.
In general, physicians should not treat themselves or members of their own families. Physicians who are employed by businesses or insurance companies, or who provide their medical expertise in sports should protect the health and safety of participants.
Visit the Code of Medical Ethics page to access additional Opinions, the Principles of Medical Ethics and a list of CME courses that are available.