Can chiropractors dating former patients

The AMA says: "Sexual contact that occurs concurrent with the physician-patient relationship constitutes sexual misconduct.Sexual or romantic interactions between physicians and patients detract from the goals of the physician-patient relationship, may exploit the vulnerability of the patient, may obscure the physician's objective judgment concerning the patient's health care, and ultimately may be detrimental to the patient's well-being....Mental health professionals set even stricter standards.For psychiatrists, it is a violation to cross the "patient-lover boundary" with any person who has ever been in the other role.When we worked in a rural town, and even after moving to the city, we occasionally examined, evaluated and treated each other for medical aliments and injuries.As a married couple, we both could be found guilty of unprofessional conduct by a fundamentalist reading of our state statute, on a strictly scriptural basis. There is a well-founded ethical and psychological basis for a general proscription of sex between doctors and patients.In reducing human behavior to coldly formal, mechanistic terms, we tend to get tripped up.Rules are always problematic, especially those that address highly complex human behaviors.

Besides the ethical dilemma, there are issues with the quality of care that a significant other receives.

Plans and physician groups should look at their internal norms and written policies, and consider how they'd respond to such scenarios, given current administrative standards.

I confess that my wife and I, both licensed practitioners, have violated the "no overlap" principle on numerous occasions with each other.

Managed care may compound the difficulty, when a limited panel of physicians presents a patient with an "ineligible" doctor as the only covered choice.

You, who are medical directors out there, please consider how you would react to a request for an out-of-network referral based on "personal reasons." The geographic reality doesn't create the ethical bind, but a contractual restriction.