Quoting Patients in Clinical Notes: First, Do No Harm
Authors: Mary Catherine Beach, Somnath Saha
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2021)

Ideas and OpinionsOctober 2021Quoting Patients in Clinical Notes: First, Do No HarmMary Catherine Beach, MD, MPH and Somnath Saha, MD, MPHMary Catherine Beach, MD, MPHJohns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (M.C.B.) and Somnath Saha, MD, MPHVA Portland Health Care System and Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon (S.S.).Author, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/M21-2449 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail The scare quote is the perfect device for making an insinuation without proving it, or even necessarily making clear what you're insinuating.—Jonathan Chait, The New Republic (1)Quotation marks, a grammatical device for distinguishing text as the words or thoughts of another person, are ubiquitous in society and in medicine. Although there are some good reasons to use quotes in patient medical records, an insidious alternative demands our attention. Quoting patients may imply skepticism or convey disrespect, and we have found that the use of quotes differs by patient race and gender (2). This possible contribution to inequity is one ...References1. Chait J. Scared yet? The New Republic. 31 December 2008. Accessed at https://newrepublic.com/article/64702/scared-yet on 12 June 2019. Google Scholar2. Beach MC, Saha S, Park J, et al. Testimonial injustice: linguistic bias in the medical records of Black patients and women. J Gen Intern Med. 2021;36:1708-1714. [PMID: 33754318] doi:10.1007/s11606-021-06682-z CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar3. Garber MB. Quotation Marks. Routledge; 2003. Google Scholar4. Finnegan RH. Why Do We Quote? The Culture and History of Quotation. Open Book Publishers; 2011. Google Scholar5. Trask L. Scare Quotes. University of Sussex; 1997. Accessed at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/quotes/scare on 8 March 2021. Google Scholar6. Goddu AP, O'Conor KJ, Lanzkron S, et al. Do words matter? Stigmatizing language and the transmission of bias in the medical record. J Gen Intern Med. 2018;33:685-691. [PMID: 29374357] doi:10.1007/s11606-017-4289-2 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar7. Fernández L, Fossa A, Dong Z, et al. Words matter: what do patients find judgmental or offensive in outpatient notes. J Gen Intern Med. 2021. [PMID: 33528782] doi:10.1007/s11606-020-06432-7 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (M.C.B.)VA Portland Health Care System and Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon (S.S.).Financial Support: Dr. Beach is supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Saha is supported by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.Disclosures: Authors have reported no disclosures of interest. Forms can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M21-2449.Corresponding Author: Mary Catherine Beach, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 2024 East Monument Street, Room 2-511, Baltimore, MD 21287; e-mail, [email protected]edu.Current Author Addresses: Dr. Beach: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 2024 East Monument Street, Room 2-511, Baltimore, MD 21287.Dr. Saha: VA Portland Health Care System (P3HSRD), 3710 SW U.S. Veterans Hospital Road, Portland, OR 97239.Author Contributions: Conception and design: M.C. Beach, S. Saha.Critical revision for important intellectual content: S. Saha.Drafting of the article: M.C. Beach, S. Saha.Final approval of the article: M.C. Beach, S. Saha.Obtaining of funding: M.C. Beach.This article was published at Annals.org on 17 August 2021. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics Cited byA Patient-Centered Approach to Writing Ambulatory Visit Notes in the Cures Act Era October 2021Volume 174, Issue 10Page: 1454-1455KeywordsAnesthesiaDiarrheaElectronic medical recordsFoodHealth equityIschemiaProstate cancerReasoningSexual identityUrination ePublished: 17 August 2021 Issue Published: October 2021 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2021 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...