Terminating a patient provider relationship

Terminating the Patient-Provider Relationship

Introduction

Problem Overview

With the advent of 21st century medical technology , health care procedures , ethical and legal considerations and scopes of practice among health care providers have become greatly complex . According to Servellen (1997 , one of the most confronting issues of the modern provider-patient relationship is the often misunderstanding of accountability , responsibility and liability of care measures towards the patient (p .334 . Legal considerations of providing care and duty of obligation of the provider towards the patients start when the health care professional enters into

a relationship with a patient . However the agreement of care relationship does not only require role of the provider . According to Scott , Ed and Scott (2005 , compliance of the patient throughout the care procedures rendered by the provider is another significant component of caring process (p .162 . In fact providers include initial assessments on patient 's level of compliance prior to the start of care process , and more importantly , health professionals inform the patient about the written policy imposing the responsibility of the patient to comply with the process of health care interventions . As considered by American Academy of Nurses , if the patient becomes noncompliant or initiates actions violating professional rights of provider or the patient 's rights , the provider possesses the benefit of terminating the working relationships as considered by the appropriate grounds (Scott , Ed and Scott , 2005

.162 . On the other hand , if the provider terminates the relationship , such professional decision now confronts the issue on breaching the pledged role of devoted care and legal duty of service

Termination of patient-provider relationships is confronted by question whether or not conflicts between the professional role of the provider and the legal duty to provide care (Servellen , 1997

.334 . The current implementations of patient care disengagement largely depend on the institutional policy . According to Scott , Ed and Scott (2005 termination of the provider-patient relationship is justified when the patient makes a knowing , voluntary election to end the relationship either unilaterally or jointly with the provider (p .162 . Upon signing the consent of care , both participants of the care process obtain their own roles in the entire procedure of care . Mason (2004 ) emphasizes that the professional relationship with the patient can just be terminated due to personal or other inappropriate grounds (p .307 . Termination of care is only considered ethical and appropriate when (1 ) the patient has already reached the maximum benefit of the procedure as supported by clinician 's judgment , or (2 ) when the patient has already achieved cure from the procedure

However , termination of patient-care relationship on the ground of patient non-compliance imposes a conflict issue between duty of care and patient 's participatory role in the process of care delivery . As supported by Servellen (1997 , the provider 's duties to the patient involving a breach of duty , relates to the standards of practice for all health care professionals (p .334 . According to Mason (2004 termination of patient care may result to a legal accusation of abandonment , which...