Thou Shalt Not: The Ohio State Medical Board has spelled out sexual no-no's for the medical profession:
The new rules would prohibit:
Failure to respect a person's privacy when they're undressing.
Asking a patient for a date.
Questions about sexual history or orientation that are not relevant to the examination.
Criticism of a patient's sexual orientation.
Keeping a third person out of the exam room during intimate examinations.
Any romantic contact with a patient, including kissing.
But what about the dating? What if there is only one doctor in a remote rural town. Is he not allowed to date local women?
No, he is not allowed to ask any of his patients for a date. So small-communities with few doctors are generally not good places for single doctors looking for a mate.
ReplyDeleteSecond that, doctors have too much power over patients. It's too open to abuse. If they want to date, go over a town.
ReplyDeletelast appointments I've had the doc wouldn't even have had time to comment on my sexuality or perform even the most rudimentary non-medically warranted groping. Too many patients to see to spend any time being naughty with one of them.
ReplyDeleteHow do you code for a kiss? or is that not billable?
Perhaps SHE might have a similar issue with MEN in the town. Not all MD's are men.
ReplyDeleteIt is inappropriate to ask a patient for a date, but I also think that it is unlikely that a person will not have another health provider as an option for care, like NP's who are working more in rural areas. If they are young enough to still be on the dating scene than they really do not need treatment from an MD on a regular basis anyway.
> How do you code for a kiss?
ReplyDelete> or is that not billable?
Hmmmmm.
Probably billable for a Complimentary/Alternative practitioner.
Coding of course depends on Dx and practitioner specialty. Unless the practitioner is a un-specialist: "Mommy". A kiss from Mommy makes most anything better.
I wonder if the people who are usually negative on doctor dating a patient (or dating your co-workers) are happily married. Because if you are single and looking, you realize how difficult it is to find the right person and you wouldn't want to waste any opportunity. Surely a patient has a right to choose if he/she is willing to date the doctor (and maybe change the doctor later)
ReplyDeleteMaybe bringing up a subject during the office visit is inappropriate, but a doctor could easily meet a patient in a social setting or even on an anonymous dating website. If a doctor is fairly busy and a patient is fairly healthy and only sees a doctor once a year for a physical, how likely it is that a doctor would even recognize a patient? I am not sure I can recognize my doctor in a social setting, ok I have horrible memory for faces, but the doctor who sees lots of patients may not even recognize someone is a patient until after a few dates.
No. Living in a small town, it makes it worse to "ask" your patient for a date, since the implication is that if you turn him down, he will neglect you when you are sick.
ReplyDeleteSo you date someone who is NOT your patient (someone you meet at church, or a nurse or secretary you work with). Or if you like a patient, you say nothing, but maybe later, when you are in a different situation, you ask for a date. most younger women only see docs for pap smears and colds, so if you see her in the 7=11 three months later and talk and then sort of start going out, it's not the same as asking for a date five minutes after you checked her tushie...