The modern Hippocratic Oath requires a physician to respect his patient's privacy. Since how a patient voted two years ago is unrelated to the patient's need for health care, asking a patient for information that is not needed in their treatment seems, to me, to violate this obligation. The Hippocratic Oath also obligates the physician to prevent disease, since prevention is preferable to cure. Since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires coverage for preventive services, it is not unreasonable to assume that it may provide benefits to this physician's patients -- preventive care benefits that have long been recognized as important by physicians who have taken the Hippocratic Oath.
"I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."Patient “abandonment” is a legal term developed primarily in medical malpractice litigation. According to the case of Lee v Dewbre, abandonment is defined as “the unilateral severance of the professional relationship between [the physician] and the patient without reasonable notice at a time when there is still the necessity of continuing medical attention.”
If I saw this sign on the office door of a physician who was providing care to me, I would feel as if my professional relationship with that physician had been unilaterally severed, with no notice. As attorney James W. Saxton writes here:
Patient discharge has serious implications. If done incorrectly, the patient can make a claim of abandonment. An abandonment claim means leaving a patient without appropriate care or guidance while the physician-patient relationship exists. An abandonment claim has serious implications since there could further be a claim of unprofessional conduct and the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs could become involved. Further, a lawsuit could be instituted. The claim of abandonment could lead to a claim for punitive damages not insured in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. When a discharge occurs patients can also be bitter and consider other possible bases for a professional liability claim.I strongly advise: Dr. Cassell, tear down this sign!
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While statewide results for Florida favored Barack Obama over John McCain, in Lake County, where Mt. Dora is located, only about 43 percent of the vote went to Obama/Biden vs. 56 percent to McCain/Palin. Besides risking malpractice suits with his sign, Dr. Cassell irritates perhaps 43 percent of his patient load, assuming he draws an average mix of patients. He'd be smarter to make a generous donation to the Republican Party, than to risk alienating 43 percent of his patient load.
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