"Eh. You could not be more wrong"

Mad? Not even close. You seem a little irritated and defensive though.

Me giving my doctor a gift certificate so he can take his wife out doesn't breach any of his ethical boundaries. If you are afraid that something like that will open a few more doors or cause him to work a few minutes late if I need something, well, it might. But that is his decision. It certainly doesn't mean that his ethics have been impugned. If, on the other hand, he is stupid enough to prescribe me something my health condition doesn't warrant, then yeah, he's going to have a problem. Its called discretion. Give it a chance before you make any further assumptions.

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This is taken from one of your own links:

"The Brigham does not have a hard and fast policy on patient gifts, Lehmann said, though it clearly outlines a no-gift policy from drug and device manufacturers. The issues, of course, are different. The objective of industry representatives is to push doctors to use their products, while gifts from patients often are purely an act of kindness or recognition for caring service. But, Lehmann said, research has shown that doctors’ practices are influenced by industry gifts, so it is important also to ask how they could be swayed by patient gifts."

Like I said earlier, there isn't an ethical issue unless the doctor is taking the gift as compensation for some other unethical act, such as unwarranted prescriptions, or if not in private practice, reduced or free appointments or procedures while using his/her employer's facilities and resources. Note that in the paragraph above, there is a no gift policy from drug and device manufacturers as there is an obvious conflict of interest there.

Doctors aren't going to give better care to a patient because of a gift. However, they may be more accommodating. You said you have a newborn at home. Many people want their primary OB to deliver their baby as they have seen them throughout the pregnancy and chose to see them for their care. Well the reality is that your wife can go into labor any time. It may work out that you end up with one of the doctors partners depending on when your wife delivers. If you have a good relationship with your doctor, they may choose to come in on their day off to do the delivery. Now instead of having a doctor that you don't really know delivering your baby, you have the OB you've been seeing. You don't need to tip or give them gifts as I stated before, but being appreciative of that will make your OB glad they came in to deliver your baby. For some people, giving gifts is part of showing their appreciation. As I stated before, being in a doctors good graces may mean that they're willing to come in early, stay late, schedule you over their lunch break, come in on a day off, etc. That does NOT mean that if they don't do that for all of their patients that they are breaching some ethical duty. There is no ethical requirement to be at every patients beck and call, even if you are willing to do it for some of your patients.

Just so you're aware, I'm married to an ACTUAL physician, so I'm well aware of not only their ethical requirements, but also the mechanics of their day-to-day and their scheduling. Also my wife has never received a gift (outside of a couple of toys for our son from patients/friends) and doesn't expect to.

 

This about sums it up. A doctor receiving a gift may make him or her more willing to accommodate your needs by sacrificing their own time, but implying that is some sort of ethical breach is laughable. Going above and beyond for one patient does not mean that a Doc is ethically obligated to do that for any and all patients going forward.

 

Duplicate

 

apparently he hasn't even read his own links. LOL.

 

You really got me! Zing! LOLOL!!! Tell a friend where did the doctor touch you? Its safe here.

 

Seriously though, It's not my opinion that it is unethical for a doctor to accept cash or items of significant value. Its an industry held belief. Again, not my opinion. That's why I included a couple links for people to check out should they care to.

Stackinchips quoted from the boston.com article but left out the best part from the same lady -

For starters, she said, doctors should not accept cash of any amount. (Dr. Lisa Lehmann, director of the Center for Bioethics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.)

From the American Nurses Ass. - "You already know it’s unethical to accept expensive gifts from patients."

Official release from Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston - "Gifts of substantial value should not be accepted by health
care providers."

From our Canadian friends - "Some gifts are clearly inappropriate, such as those of a very personal nature, cash, or gifts of significant monetary value."

Obviously, nothing I say will dissuade you. Obviously, nothing from industry ethics professionals will dissuade you. And that's ok. We're all gonna do what we do. I say good health to all of you cause w/o that you ain't got much.

 

Did you miss the part where I'm married to an actual physician? I've been around doctors socially and professionally for the better part of 15 years. You're quoting articles as if they're the end all be all, and everyone else is just some moron who is clueless. I can assure you I'm much more in tune with this topic than you are.

You seem to think that it's this black and white situation, when everything you're quoting has implied that it's certainly a gray area. Even what you're quoting now is very open ended. Gifts of "substantial value should not be accepted". Would you care to tell me at exactly what amount a gift becomes "substantial"? How about "significant monetary value"? I can tell you from this board alone, what one person considers a substantial or significant amount of money is very subjective. Even saying that some hospitals (and the fact that it isn't uniformly banned should tell you that what you think so cut and dry is clearly not) ban the practice doesn't mean that it's unethical. It's easier to simply ban the practice than it is to try to make sure that nothing unscrupulous is happening in those situations. Especially when you consider that healthcare is already the most litigated industry around, why risk it if you're a hospital?

But you go ahead and keep quoting the "facts", and I'll just keep my first hand knowledge of the situation to myself so you can feel like you're the smartest person in the room. I mean you have googled articles from ACTUAL doctors (that explicitly contradict your opinion, but you think they make it fact), I'm just married to one and close friends with dozens....

 

Are you married to a doctor or something?

 

I feel bad when I don't bet blacks for the dealers. But then I do the math and realize that I usually give at least as much as my theo in tips, which is ridiculous but super easy to do. If you play blackjack at $5K average bet on a S17 DD game, you're only giving the house about $1500 per hour in theo. But it's easy to throw 2 or 3 blacks out there for the dealer when you hit a $5K or $10K blackjack. They might even look at you like that $200 is cheap because you just got paid $15K or whatever....I've had that happen several times. They won't actually say anything but you can tell.

The problem is that you'll hit about 5-6 blackjacks per hour on average...so you're giving up ~$1200+/hr to the dealers, and another $1500 to the game. Over the course of a 3 or 4 day weekend, win or lose, that $1200/hr in tips might easily wind up being $30K that I'm giving to the dealers....for nothing...on a game where we're already starting behind the curve. That money is a guaranteed loss....that's a mid-range car that I'm giving away each Vegas weekend that will never benefit me.

So in short, I'm with you on just tipping once at the end of a session. I've just given away too much over the years.