Doctors Refusing to Treat Overweight Patients

[Mark]

Doctors Refusing to Treat Overweight Patients

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Fifteen obstetrics-gynecology practices out of 105 polled by the Sun Sentinel said they have set weight limits for new patients. Some of the doctors said the main reason was their exam tables or other equipment can't handle people over a certain weight, but at least six said heavy women run a higher risk of complications.

"People don't realize the risk we're taking by taking care of these patients," the newspaper quoted Dr. Albert Triana of South Miami as saying. "There's more risk of something going wrong and more risk of getting sued. Everything is more complicated with an obese patient in GYN surgeries and in [pregnancies]," he told the newspaper.

It is not illegal for doctors to refuse overweight patients, but it has medical ethicists worried. So far, the weight cutoffs have been enacted only by South Florida ob-gyns, who have long complained about high numbers of lawsuits after difficult births and high rates for medical-malpractice insurance.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/report-doctors-refusing-treat-overweight

[Kilika]

Morbidly obese patients are a special situation in a medical practice, as my wife can attest to. In the medical office she works at they have had "issues" in dealing with the obese, but, unlike these clowns on Florida, they treat them as best they can like any other patient. The staff may not like having to keep a 1/4 ton human from falling to the floor, etc, but they sincerely try to care for them.

Who would need a doctor more than a person who is susceptable to complications? And the doctors won't treat them because there's a greater risk of health issues with the patient? Isn't treating health issues what doctors get paid to do? Are they going to stop treating the person who walks to work because they are a higher risk of getting hit by a car in a crosswalk? Their logic is severely distorted, and I suspect insurers are behind it. Their logic demands the question was the pateints already obese when they first met the doctor that won't treat them? Or did the patient get obese under the care of the doctor?

Also, an OB-GYN is a "referal" doctor, a specialist. They aren't what's called a PCP, or Primary Care Physician. Thus, their logic is that the patient should have a primary general practice doctor already caring for them that can refer the patient to another OB. Most coverage requires a referal for a specialist, be it OB-GYN, Gastro, Cardio, etc. Just by listening to my wife blow off steam about work, I've learned a thing or two about the medical industry. I guess it's part of "wise as serpents...".

So in a way, the article is presenting a slightly distorted view of the situation. Who are "medical ethicists" anyway?

The attitude seems to be that if a patient is really trying to deal with the weight, medical personel generally try to encourage and help the patient. Those patients who don't care for their weight issues tend to be problem patients in general. They just generally don't do, or won't do what they are told by medical staff. My wife has had patients over 500 lbs., and one well over 600. Some she looks forward to helping, while others not so much.