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Re: Bad News From: Garry E. Siegel, M.D. (garrys@mindspring.com) Sun Oct 30 09:46:33 2005 Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ] Next message: Garry E. Siegel, M.D.: "Re: Bad News" Previous message: D. Ashley Hill: "Re: Bad News" In reply to: D. Ashley Hill: "Re: Bad News" Ashley: I am in full agreement, and I think you truly have to individualize it based on your knowledge and comfort level with the patient. Generally, "normal" news--pathology from your D and C is OK, Amnio normal, etc.--is a phone call by me or my assistant, depending on the nature of the good news and the patient. For instance, pathology that needs to be discussed (you have extensive endometriosis) is a call I make, whereas "your amnio was normal" is a call my assistant makes. I recently have had a endometrial cancer and a trisomy 21 in patients that I really didn't have enough of a comfort level to call on the phone, so I then faced: --calling them and asking them to come in; of course, if I make that call, I'm "trapped" so to speak. Thus, I have the staff call them and ask them to come in that day, and we all know that means the patient knows something is bad. --calling them by phone and not exactly having a good feel for how it would go. I chose the former in both and am glad that I did. Garry At Sat, 29 Oct 2005, D. Ashley Hill wrote: > >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. > >Ashley > >-- >D. Ashley Hill, MD >Associate Director >Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology >Florida Hospital Family Practice Residency > and Loch Haven Ob/Gyn Group >Orlando, Florida > -- Garry E. Siegel, M.D. Private Practice Roswell, GA Next message: Garry E. Siegel, M.D.: "Re: Bad News" Previous message: D. Ashley Hill: "Re: Bad News" In reply to: D. Ashley Hill: "Re: Bad News"

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