Alabama Administrative Code › Title 540 - ALABAMA BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS › Chapter 540-X-9 - MISCELLANEOUS › Section 540-X-9-.07 - Position Statement Of The Alabama Board Of Medical Examiners Concerning The Physician-Patient Relationship

Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 9, June 28, 2024
(1) The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners
			 recognizes the movement toward the restructure of the delivery of health care
			 and the significant needs that motivate that movement. The resulting changes
			 are providing a wider range and variety of health care delivery options to the
			 public. Notwithstanding these developments in health care delivery, the duty of
			 the physician remains the same: to provide competent, compassionate, and
			 economically prudent care to all his or her patients. Whatever the health care
			 setting, the Board holds that the physician's fundamental relationship is
			 always with the patient, just the as Board's relationship is always with the
			 individual physician. Having assumed care of a patient, the physician may not
			 neglect that patient nor fail for any reason to prescribe the full care that
			 patient requires in accord with the standards of acceptable medical practice.
			 Further, it is the Board's position that it is unethical and unprofessional for
			 a physician to allow financial incentives or contractual ties of any kind to
			 adversely affect his or her medical judgment or practice care.
(2) Therefore, it is the position of the
			 Alabama Board of Medical Examiners that any act by a physician that violates or
			 may violate the trust a patient places in the physician places the relationship
			 between physician and patient at risk. This is true whether such an act is
			 entirely self-determined or the result of the physician's contractual
			 association with a health care entity. The Board believes the interests and
			 health of the people of Alabama are best served when the physician-patient
			 relationship remains inviolate. The physician who puts the physician-patient
			 relationship at risk also puts his or her relationship with the Board in
			 jeopardy.
(3) The Alabama Board of
			 Medical Examiners is involved in the process of licensing physicians as a part
			 of regulating the practice of medicine in this state. A license to practice
			 medicine grants the physician privileges and imposes great responsibilities.
			 The people of Alabama expect a licensed physician to be competent and worthy of
			 their trust. As patients, they come to the physician in a vulnerable condition,
			 believing the physician has knowledge and skill that will be used for their
			 benefit.
(4) Patient trust is
			 fundamental to the relationship thus established. It requires the following:
(a) that there be adequate communication
			 between the physician and the patient;
(b) that there be no conflict of interest
			 between the patient and the physician or third parties;
(c) that intimate details of the patient's
			 life shared with the physician be held in confidence;
(d) that the physician maintain professional
			 knowledge and skills;
(e) that
			 there be respect for the patient's autonomy;
(f) that the physician be
			 compassionate;
(g) that the
			 physician be an advocate for needed medical care, even at the expense of the
			 physician's personal interests; and
(h) that the physician provide neither more
			 nor less than the medical problem requires.