Question

Dr. Respected is 77 years old and has been practicing medicine for 50 years. He is revered in his community and has been a major face of the largest hospital in the area for quite some time. He is in solo practice as a primary care physician. He is scaling down his practice some but makes rounds in the hospital every day and sees patients in his office.

                In the hospital he now often consults others to help manage his patients. The care given and the outcomes are good. The nursing staff has been noticing that he is gradually declining and this has been passed on to administration. His comments to them are at times odd, and he forgets to sign his notes. A few orders have been for the wrong dose of a medication and the consultants have been correcting this. His patients love when he comes to visit them in the hospital.

                Does the hospital have a responsibility to take away Dr. Respected's privileges? There have been no reports of bad outcomes. Does the hospital share a burden of responsibility for the care given at the physician's office where there are no consultants?

Answer 1

Does the hospital have a responsibility to take away Dr. Respected privileges? There have been no reports of bad outcomes. Does the hospital share a burden of responsibility for the care given at the physician's office where there are no consultants?

Hospital industry is a service based industry,experienced doctors always an asset to the industry.Because an experienced may bring some of his real time experiences to practice and share some valuable information with physicians.

There are so much to learn from an experienced and well knowledged physicians. Apart from these everyone in the hospital needs to follow some rules and regulations that are framed by the hospital.Its every individual right in the hospital needs to follow and obey its terms and conditions.

Apart from treatment,a physician should know his/her responsibility and behave according to that.Though he is an experienced doctor he should follow the rules ,because that spoils the health atmosphere towards physicians and being a doctor he should not neglect while providing drugs to patients.

They can warn him,instead of terminating his privileges.Because most of the patients turning up to the hospital because of the care and love that he shares with them.There are patients always look for that physicians who can interact and communicate in a loving manner. There is no burden to the hospital as he is taking care of patients at his best.

As it was mentioned that there are no reports that reported against to him.This means he is not going against to the rules and regulations of the hospital. It's a human tendency to forget things just remind him before he leaves the hospital.