How to help a "problem" patient
Klinicheskaia meditsina 89(6): 63-65
2011
ISSN/ISBN: 0023-2149 PMID: 22420199 Document Number: 655766
A patient may become a "problem" owing to three groups of causes acting either independently or together. Group 1 is characteristic features of the patient including psychological problems and borderline psychiatric disorders. Group 2 is related to the physician's activity (overfatigue, poor communicative skills, etc.). Group 3 is comprised by the causes related to the peculiarities of the healthcare system structure and organization (overworked physicians, insufficient time that they can spend in direct care to an individual patient, inadequate information the patients acquire from non-medical sources). Poor organization of work in an outpatient facility inevitably deteriorates the quality of the provided care. The patients attending it begin making complaints against the personnel which leads to conflicts even in the absence of serious medical errors. Practical recommendations are proposed designed to help the "problem patients" to obtain quality medical aid and avoid conflict situations.