Re: Bad News

From: Dr Eberhard W Lisse (el@lisse.NA)
Sun Oct 30 00:28:40 2005


Ashley,

I often have HIV results to communicate, if I refuse to do that over the phone bot don't refuse all the time it's obvious...

I do not believe one should compromise oneself (and/or one's ethics) because of "issues" which are actually whims. If it is *THAT* important, it is *THAT* important. If not, it can wait.

By the way, I only communicate by email when the patient asks fo it, write the email address onto the file (herself) and confirms afterwards tha the email is correct. I have GPG but very few patients do.

greetings, el

In message <200510292233.j9TMXCY07086@dns.obgyn.net>, D. Ashley Hill writes:

> We may assume that patients prefer face-to-face communication when
> receiving bad news, but I've had patients tell me that they would rather
> "hear it right away" than wait (even for a day) to see me in the office.
> Folks are used to communicating with email and voicemail and telephone,
> so I don't think most patients would mind a phone call as long as the
> physician is kind and informative. Also, some patients have child-care
> issues or can't leave work for a spur of the moment office visit. For
> some patients a phone call is a much more effective and appreciated
> method of dealing with bad news. It depends on the patient and the
> circumstances.





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