Introduction
Healthcare has some challenges where many physicians have failed to stick to their duty and found themselves in compromise. Medical professionals are supposed to have their greatest concern for the patient and altruism. An analysis of health practices revealed that sexual relationships with physicians, vendor relationships with physicians and special treatment of family by physicians are problems in the healthcare practice and there is a need to address these problems.
Chosen Topics of Health care Practices
Many physicians have fallen into sexual relationships with their patients. Sexual relationships can be initiated by the physician or the patient. Medical professionals who go this far in their careers experience negative effects. Patients also suffer psychologically.
Some physicians compromise their prescriptions to the patients because of the influence of the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical companies’ main aim is commercial production and sometimes put a lot of effort to influence the physicians by their marketing strategies.
Physicians may also find themselves in health problems that are caused by their busyness that they neglect their own health. There is also the fear of other medical professionals’ criticism. There is also a conflict between physicians and family members.
Sexual Relationships with Physicians
Research in the US has revealed that 10% of family doctors have had sexual relationships with a patient. Having sex with a patient is completely too much for a physician. There has been intensive research to address the issue but nothing comprehensive has been done so far (Searight & Campbell, 1993).
Research has shown that doctors who work as psychiatrists and gynecologists are more vulnerable to sexual relations with patients. The most affected are those physicians who stay away from their families and those who are in their mid ages. Sexual misconduct cases have been seen to increase considerably with time which is estimated to be a 44% increase every ten years (McMillan, 2004).
The American Medical Association presented ethical ways to address the sexual relationships of patients with physicians. However, the guidelines are not clear in which way the physician can have a sexual relationship with the patient. Sometimes patient’s behavior can cause the relationship. Currently, there are laws that target mental health professionals making it illegal to have any sexual relationship with their patient. However, this law has not addressed other professionals outside psychiatrists.
Sexual contact of physicians with patients leads to psychological suffering of the patient (Searight & Campbell,1993).
The physicians are vulnerable to suffering consequences of sexual relationships with the patients. They can either lose their jobs or be prosecuted. Sexual relationships between physicians and their relatives can also be unlawful, though people may have different opinions.
Vendor Relationships with Physicians
Healthcare and pharmaceutical companies are prone to conflict. The conflict comes as a result of the common interest of the patients. Physicians find themselves in a situation that can make them compromise because of pressure from pharmaceutical industries. The two groups are committed in support drug development and research. Their contributions have been beneficial to many patients but they sometimes compromise the ethics in their professions. There are also many companies that support medical education along with the intensive advertisement of their products. The same doctors are shareholders of the pharmaceutical companies making it more complicated to deal with the issue of preference in drug prescription. The patients also become aware of their behavior to their prescriptions (Breannan et al., 2006).
Research has proven that many doctors can be influenced by pharmaceutical companies. Companies influence doctors through their gifts and free meals. Pharmaceutical companies also hold meetings and educational programs so as to influence the patterns of prescriptions. In a certain study, the results were that many patients believed that doctors are highly influenced by pharmaceutical companies.
Pharmaceutical companies have also been criticized for providing education to medical practitioners, paying for their travel so as to become their customers in return. The pharmaceutical companies also influence doctors by organizing training with their own topics and speakers so as to promote their drugs (Miller, 2007).
Special Treatment of Family
Medical care accessibility is a problem for all people including health workers. In many areas, it is hard to get an appointment within a short period of time. This makes it difficult for the physicians to get time to take care of their own health. Having health insurance is sometimes involved and requires a lot of time.
The financial needs of doctors cause them to have jobs in different institutions so that they are left with no free time. Doctors, often self prescribe to prevent illness. Although many doctors are well informed on health issues, being sick is one of the greatest fears they face. The imagination that they will need someone to take care of them can bring stigma. They also try their best to hide any of their health problems from their colleagues. They, therefore, treat themselves which sometimes is not appropriate. This can lead to the development of the disease which will eventually decrease their productivity in their profession (Farrell, Gilday & Mossman, 2011).
Physicians also find themselves in a position where family members need their service, but sometimes fail to give full attention to them. Other times, they can be treated outside their specialty and this can lead to misdiagnosis and wrong treatment (ACP, 2011). There are other family members who believe that their family physician is the best to treat them and when the physician fails to attend to them they feel offended. In contrast, other family members do not trust their family physician to treat them (ACP, 2011).
Solutions to the Problems
Solutions to Sexual Relationships with Physicians
Education is one of the most appropriate ways to tackle the problem of sexual relationships of physicians with their patients. Education curriculum in both undergraduate and postgraduate education should include an emphasis on ethics and psychiatry to prevent sexual relationships with the patients. They should involve discussions of students with doctors to counteract the problem.
Healthcare facilities should encourage reporting of sexual relationships of physicians with patients to the management. The management should also have clear guidelines to deal with such cases. When the truth is established, it is important to take disciplinary action. This should be for the physician or the patient. Victims of sexual abuse should be helped psychologically and medically and the management of healthcare should ensure that justice is done.
Solutions to Vendor Relationships with Physicians
Physicians should ensure that they get quality for their patients. Gifts and lunches should be banned. University of Pennsylvania, Yale, and Stanford Universities have banned gifts and lunches. If there are gifts from the company, they should first benefit the patient other than the physicians. All gifts should not bias the doctor to prescribe any company’s drugs. Physicians should formulate a policy to ban gifts from pharmaceutical companies. The policy should guide on which terms the gift can be given and also provide the criteria of approving any gift (Katz, 2009). Entertainment should not be excessive.
Support on traveling cost should only be for those with the main business to conferences. Sponsored students should not be oriented to one pharmaceutical company that gave the sponsorship. Health meetings should also be planned by an independent group of people who do not belong to any pharmaceutical company. Publications on research should be directed by professionals and should uphold ethics but not profits of individual pharmaceutical companies (Komesaroff & Kerridge, 2002).
Solutions to Special Treatment of Family
A physician should also be able to know and establish the kind of relationship he has with the relatives or parents. If it becomes a hindrance to providing an effective service, then the physician should refer the patient to another physician (ACP, 2011).
Physicians should also be able to convince their family members that other physicians are well able to give them good health care. Physicians should also limit their services to where they are experts. They should always be honest with their family members and tell them about their profession rather than treating other areas in which they were not trained. This would decrease misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment (ACP, 2011).
Physicians should also take care not to give sub-standard treatment to their relatives. They should try their best to give quality treatment to their family members giving them the same standard of treatment as other patients. Physicians should also keep records of the health of family members. They should communicate with the primary physician so as to know about their health progress. Records give physicians health information on the trends of the family members and are appropriate to determine any action (ACP, 2011).
Physicians should also create time for themselves so as to take care of their own health. They should stop overworking themselves by avoiding excessive jobs. They should also build trust amongst them so that one would not feel intimidated when he gets a health challenge.
Conclusion
Sexual relationships between physicians and their patients are unacceptable. Pharmaceutical companies should not influence physicians’ prescription patterns. Physicians should also mind their own health as well as of their family members with great attention as that of other patients. Education of physicians, prevention of influence from pharmaceutical companies and understanding of family helps to solve these problems.
References
ACP. (2011). Should doctors treat their relatives? Acpinternist. Web.
Breannan et al. (2006). Health Industry Practices That Create Conflicts of Interests. Research Compliance. Web.
Farrell, F., Gilday, A & Mossman, A. (2011). Should You Prescribe medications for family and friends? Current Psychiatry. Web.
Katz, A. (2009). When to say thanks, but no thanks. Web.
Komesaroff, P. A., & Kerridge, I. H. (2002). Ethical issues concerning the relationships between medical practitioners and the pharmaceutical industry. MJA. Web.
McMillan, I. (2004). Initiative Launched to Shift attitudes to mental illness. Mental Health Practice. Vol 8(3). , 4.
Miller, A. (2007). Physician-Vendor Arrangements: Legal compliance Challenges. Bioethics International. Web.
Searight, A & Campbell, C. (1993). Physician-Patient sexual Contact: ethical and legal issues and clinical guidelines. NCBI. Web.