Medical Staff

Many factors affect MD-patient relationship

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, January 31, 2007

In a perspective piece in the January 23 New York Times, one physician ruminates about how changes in the medical profession and in society at large have profoundly affected today's physician-patient relationships.

Despite negative influences such as malpractice suits, medical technology, and confusion over Medicare Part D that may act to loosen and misfocus that relationship, Manoj Jain, MD, writes, "the doctor-patient relationship is more than a commercial transaction between retailers and customers; it is a sacred bond in which both parties are interdependent."

Jain also writes in the piece, "It is an honor and a privilege to help and heal people, not just because I am trained to prescribe drugs, administer injections and wield the scalpel, but because I am able to help them at the most difficult time of their lives. By the same token, [one] patient let me know that she realized the privilege and security of being cared for and treated by a doctor."

To access the full article, click here.

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