Dear Lonny
I'm a family physician. A patient of mine recently made
a College complaint against me which is completely baseless.
I'm now forced to spend time away from my practice and
my family to deal with this and I know I'll be a basket
case for months until the complaint is dismissed. What
I really want to do is counter-sue my patient! That
would put an end to this matter and compensate me for
the time and stress. What's the best way to proceed?
Signed, Mad as
Hell
Dear Mad,
Health lawyers get this question all the time. It probably
won't come as a huge surprise that I'm going to advise
you to do nothing of the sort. As hurtful as a complaint
can be, trying to sue the patient is almost never an
option. Upon sober reflection, most doctors accept that
responding to patient complaints is their professional
obligation and simply one of the more unpleasant 'costs
of doing business' in a self-regulated profession.
Occasionally, however, health professionals
insist on going ahead with an action. A recent case
shows how this can severely backfire. A dentist was
convinced that his patient's complaint was an effort
to avoid paying his dental fees. Instead of responding
to the complaint appropriately, the dentist repeatedly
contacted the patient and threatened to sue her unless
she withdrew her complaint. As you can guess, the patient
reported his conduct to the College. Not satisfied,
the dentist launched a lawsuit against the patient,
alleging that she defamed him in her letter to the College.
The patient immediately asked the Court to dismiss the
dentist's claim, which it did. The Court found that
the patient had a duty to report the dentist's conduct
to the College, and that communications to the College
made in good faith could not be defamatory. The dentist
was ordered to pay his patient's legal costs and risked
being disciplined by the College as a result of his
communications with his patient while the complaint
was being investigated.
FILING
QUIRK
Dear Lonny,
I've always kept records by family, but a new physician
in our clinic says this is a bad practice, and may be
against the rules. Is she right?
Signed, File under
"Confused"
Dear Confused
Your new colleague is mostly right. Provincial legislation
and College policy require that a separate medical record
be maintained for each patient. This makes sense from
the perspectives of patient care, privacy and access,
and the doctor's own protection. If a patient wants
to access their record, or if you need to copy or transfer
it, or if it's subpoenaed to Court, it's important that
it can be easily retrieved, and that the record doesn't
contain someone else's personal health information.
There is an exception, however,
when it comes to couple and family therapy records.
Where individuals are treated together, their personal
health information is shared and communicated in a group
setting, so privacy isn't an issue here. However, only
information disclosed in the group setting can be shared,
so physicians should keep separate records for patients
who receive both family and individual treatment.
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