Physician, Google Thyself

Patient privacy is enshrined in ethical and legal statutes, but what about their doctors’ privacy? Two psychiatrists at Massachusetts General Hospital counsel their colleagues on the lengths their patients may go to in order to dig up digital dirt on them, from how much they paid for their houses to what their sexual orientation may be. Perhaps just as worrying as Internet stalking is the ease of stumbling onto suspect sources, they say in a commentary that warns older doctors not conversant with the Web that they ignore it at their peril. “There may be slanderous information about a physician on the Web, published in a blog or on a Web page, by a vengeful patient, colleague, or ex-lover,” Dr. Tristan Gorrindo and Dr. James E. Groves write in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Equally vexing, there may be slanderous information published about someone with the same name as an unlucky physician.” What’s a doctor to do? First, take a spin through Google to see what’s out there, they advise. Then take control. Fight back with a plain vanilla Web page containing a basic bio and contact information. “Such information may satisfy a patient’s desire to find some digital connectedness to his or her physician, thereby discouraging deeper online probing,” they write. Of course, they can also talk to their patients about it. “If a physician suspects that an Internet-savvy patient is engaged in seeking personal information about him or her, we recommend that the physician talk with the patient about the garnered information.”

Please click on the link below to read the Boston Globe article:

http://www.boston.com/news/health/blog/2008/07/physicians_goog.html

For more information on defending medical malpractice and nursing home matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at The Citron Law Firm, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Costs, Quality of Life Drive Doctors from the Baby Business

When they tell their pregnant patients someone else will have to deliver their babies, it is not unusual for the doctors of Brookside Obstetrics and Gynecology Associates in Greenwich to get a special request. “They’ll say, ‘How about just one more?’ ” said Dr. Gaetane Francis. “Or ‘Can you make an exception for my baby?’ ” said Dr. Michele Rohr. The answer, the doctors said, is a regrettable no. Not after Sept. 1. On that day, the three Brookside doctors who still deliver babies will stop. Francis, Rohr and Dr. Caroline Filor will still see patients, but only for gynecological care, related surgeries and first-trimester pregnancies. It is a decision the doctors – who as a group deliver about 400 of the approximately 2,000 babies born at Greenwich Hospital annually – said they arrived at with a mix of grief and relief. The Brookside doctors’ decision makes them part of a growing trend as doctors in Fairfield County and beyond consider leaving the baby business behind. Many of the doctors cite skyrocketing medical malpractice premiums, reduced compensation from third-party insurers as well as the taxing demands on the personal lives of doctors who preside at labor and deliveries as reasons for the exodus. “This news at Brookside, unfortunately, is a microcosm of what we’ve seen happening in obstetrics for several years,” said Dr. Lawrence Bruck, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Stamford Hospital. “It is a crisis for the profession and ultimately, it will impact the patients, if not in this generation of mothers, the next.” A 2006 liability survey by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that 8 percent of its members stopped practicing obstetrics. In Connecticut, one of 20 states the AMA has labeled a malpractice “crisis” state, the trend appears worse.

Please click on the link below to read the Greenwich Time article:

http://www.greenwichtime.com/ci_9883267

For more information on defending medical malpractice and nursing home matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at The Citron Law Firm, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.