Ethical Issues in the Ophthalmology Practice
Ethical Issues in the Ophthalmology Practice
This is Dr. Roger Steinert, Chair of Ophthalmology and Director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at the University of California Irvine. I am here at the Hawaiian Eye™ Meeting 2013 on the big island of Hawaii, at the Hilton Waikoloa. If you are in cold and snowy conditions, my apologies for the background, but you might want to come next year. The meeting consists of separate days with individual subjects and themes. The theme for Sunday that I am going to report on first was quite interesting in that it brings out a lot of different subjects that aren't typically covered in many other ophthalmology meetings.
One of the subjects on Sunday was a panel discussion on ethical issues. Dr. Carmen Puliafito from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California presented a handful of scenarios of real-life cases that he has had to deal with. One of the most interesting questions was, "What do you do when you have a colleague whom you are in practice with, someone you trust and with whom you have had a long relationship, but who seems to no longer be in compliance, and you are concerned about ethics?"
The scenarios could range from the way a patient is treated through issues of billing and potential fraud. That scenario triggered much discussion, and the consensus of the panel was that if you are aware of something that concerns you, you have to address it, regardless of how awkward and painful it is (and the smaller the practice the more painful that can be) but you need to be forthright and proactive. If you are aware of a problem and do not act on it, then you become part of the problem and are complicit in it, even in fraud and abuse if it got to that level. Agreement on that approach was full, and also to involve legal counsel as well if appropriate.
We will be bringing you daily reports on each of the sessions as the week goes on. I am Roger Steinert on behalf of Medscape.
This is Dr. Roger Steinert, Chair of Ophthalmology and Director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at the University of California Irvine. I am here at the Hawaiian Eye™ Meeting 2013 on the big island of Hawaii, at the Hilton Waikoloa. If you are in cold and snowy conditions, my apologies for the background, but you might want to come next year. The meeting consists of separate days with individual subjects and themes. The theme for Sunday that I am going to report on first was quite interesting in that it brings out a lot of different subjects that aren't typically covered in many other ophthalmology meetings.
One of the subjects on Sunday was a panel discussion on ethical issues. Dr. Carmen Puliafito from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California presented a handful of scenarios of real-life cases that he has had to deal with. One of the most interesting questions was, "What do you do when you have a colleague whom you are in practice with, someone you trust and with whom you have had a long relationship, but who seems to no longer be in compliance, and you are concerned about ethics?"
The scenarios could range from the way a patient is treated through issues of billing and potential fraud. That scenario triggered much discussion, and the consensus of the panel was that if you are aware of something that concerns you, you have to address it, regardless of how awkward and painful it is (and the smaller the practice the more painful that can be) but you need to be forthright and proactive. If you are aware of a problem and do not act on it, then you become part of the problem and are complicit in it, even in fraud and abuse if it got to that level. Agreement on that approach was full, and also to involve legal counsel as well if appropriate.
We will be bringing you daily reports on each of the sessions as the week goes on. I am Roger Steinert on behalf of Medscape.
Source...