thanksforadvice
Junior Member
Hi,
This is regarding a possible patient abandonment in California.
A doctor treating patients (in a special field) visited a forum after being tipped off, where patients from all over the world discuss their specific treatments for this particular disease he treats.
The doctor saw a post about him. His name was not mentioned, forum rules say we are not allowed to use doctor names, but we are allowed to use initials, i.e., Dr. D.
The main question in the post was asking a new patient asking how to get a hold of this Md - as his office never answers the phones, you can only leave messages, often mailboxes are full and you cannot leave a message. It was urgent as a patient needed to cancel an appointment or get fined by the MD $100 if not done within one week of the appt. So she posted where she knew other of his patients would be and hopefully could help.
Many responses were negative such as "don't bother, I am feeling worse since seeing this Md", "their office is chaotic and they never answer phones or return calls" ...etc. 30 posts in all 75% warned it was like this all the time and there is no way to get through. Really idle patient to patient chatter.
The Md (we believe) was notified by a patient at the forum that HE was being discusssed in the forum. He apparently then visited the forum and was able (I don't know exactly how) to figure out the patients names...some members use their first name as their "user id".
He called several of the patients that had responded to the post and told them he didn't appreciate that they were discussing him, he was angry at the patients for saying "the office was chaotic" etc., and told them they were no longer welcome at his practice and dropped them on the spot. One girl asked that he please allow her to see him one last time to go over lab results, he said, "No find another doctor". This is a disease that is very rare and find a good specialist in the field is very difficult. When you are lucky enough to find a doctor who treats this disease there are often months to wait for new patients to get in. This doctor is well aware of that fact.
Several of us are sure he was able to figure out patient names with the help from one of the forum members.
Is this doctor within his legal rights to drop patients one by one over a forum post?
Thank you.
This is regarding a possible patient abandonment in California.
A doctor treating patients (in a special field) visited a forum after being tipped off, where patients from all over the world discuss their specific treatments for this particular disease he treats.
The doctor saw a post about him. His name was not mentioned, forum rules say we are not allowed to use doctor names, but we are allowed to use initials, i.e., Dr. D.
The main question in the post was asking a new patient asking how to get a hold of this Md - as his office never answers the phones, you can only leave messages, often mailboxes are full and you cannot leave a message. It was urgent as a patient needed to cancel an appointment or get fined by the MD $100 if not done within one week of the appt. So she posted where she knew other of his patients would be and hopefully could help.
Many responses were negative such as "don't bother, I am feeling worse since seeing this Md", "their office is chaotic and they never answer phones or return calls" ...etc. 30 posts in all 75% warned it was like this all the time and there is no way to get through. Really idle patient to patient chatter.
The Md (we believe) was notified by a patient at the forum that HE was being discusssed in the forum. He apparently then visited the forum and was able (I don't know exactly how) to figure out the patients names...some members use their first name as their "user id".
He called several of the patients that had responded to the post and told them he didn't appreciate that they were discussing him, he was angry at the patients for saying "the office was chaotic" etc., and told them they were no longer welcome at his practice and dropped them on the spot. One girl asked that he please allow her to see him one last time to go over lab results, he said, "No find another doctor". This is a disease that is very rare and find a good specialist in the field is very difficult. When you are lucky enough to find a doctor who treats this disease there are often months to wait for new patients to get in. This doctor is well aware of that fact.
Several of us are sure he was able to figure out patient names with the help from one of the forum members.
Is this doctor within his legal rights to drop patients one by one over a forum post?
Thank you.