When a doctor has a conflict with a patient, how should the doctor deal with it correctly?
Written by | Wang Hang
Source | "Medical Community" public account
"Zhang Jianjun was suspended for 2 months, deducted 2 months of performance pay, recorded points for bad practice behavior, the whole hospital notified criticism, and canceled the treatment of annual evaluation and selection qualifications."
Recently, a video of a doctor in Gansu abusing a patient has aroused heated public opinion. Three days after the video fermented, on February 19, the Dingxi People's Hospital of Gansu Province issued an investigation notice, saying that the family members involved did not queue up and call directly into the orthopedic clinic according to the hospital regulations, and punished the doctors, department heads and relevant leaders of the hospital accordingly.
The doctor involved clashed with the patient
This is the end of the incident, but there is still a lot to think about for healthcare practitioners. When there is a conflict between the doctor and the patient, and the patient is at fault, how should the doctor deal with it correctly? Wang Yue, a professor in the Department of Medical Ethics and Law at Peking University's School of Medical Humanities, shared his views with the "medical community."
Conflict is related to queuing for medical treatment
According to the official website of "Dingxi People's Hospital", Zhang Jianjun is the deputy chief physician of the Department of Osteopathic Cardiothoracic Surgery, who has been engaged in general surgery for 13 years, and is now engaged in cardiothoracic surgery and orthopedics.
Online video shows that on the day of the incident, at the door of the hospital's orthopedic clinic, Dr. Zhang Jianjun had an argument with a female patient, who repeatedly pointed at each other with his fingers, and then loudly insulted the woman and told her to "get out".
During the verbal conflict between the two sides, Dr. Zhang Jianjun did not wear a mask the whole time, holding a lit cigarette in his left hand, during which time other doctors came to persuade him, and the doctor in question, Zhang Jianjun, walked into the clinic and closed the door. Other patients at the scene continued to queue.
A picture of the doctor and the patient in conflict
The images and text are from the original video
On the night of the video fermentation on February 16, Dingxi People's Hospital issued a notice saying that for the short video platform users to publish videos of themselves and their families clashing with Zhang Jianjun, a doctor of the hospital, the hospital attached great importance to this and set up an investigation team to investigate and deal with the matter at the first time.
"In the preliminary investigation, Zhang Jianjun, the doctor on duty at the orthopedic clinic, had a verbal conflict with the patient and his family due to the queue for treatment... After the special meeting of the hospital, it was decided that Zhang Jianjun's prescription rights and clinical diagnosis and treatment behavior should be immediately stopped, and it would be seriously dealt with after further investigation and verification and announced to the public in a timely manner. ”
The next day, the relevant person in charge of Dingxi People's Hospital said in an interview with the Southern Metropolis Daily reporter that the hospital will never allow doctors to smoke when receiving treatment, and the reason why Dr. Zhang Jianjun in the video holds a cigarette in his left hand is "after a conflict with the patient, in order to stabilize the mood."
The person in charge also said that the online video only intercepted a small segment and could not fully reflect the incident. At the time of the incident, the doctor involved dissuaded the patient from cutting in line, but was verbally abused, so he lit a cigarette in a state of anger. Of course, this behavior is not right. ”
After the video fermented, topics such as "doctors clashed with patients due to queuing problems" and "a doctor in Gansu insulted patients in public" triggered discussions among netizens, and related topics were read more than 5 million times.
Some netizens left a message to express doubts: "The queue problem is caused by the doctor helping people to cut in line, or the patient is accused of verbal conflict by the doctor, what is the cause and effect?" ”
"The patient cuts in line, the doctor comes out to reprimand, and the person who shoots the video does not shoot the arbitrariness of the person who cuts in the line, only the doctor's loud rebuke." The Internet should become a tool for everyone to understand the truth of the matter, rather than being used by some people to intensify the contradiction between doctors and patients. ”
Some netizens said bluntly: "No matter what, you can't insult patients." ”
Peking University experts: We should reflect on it from the perspective of hospital management
On February 19, Dingxi People's Hospital said in an investigation notice that the reason for the language conflict was that "the family members involved did not queue up to enter the department", coupled with poor language communication, and there was a difference in the order of medical treatment with Dr. Zhang Jianjun.
Wang Yue, a professor in the Department of Medical Ethics and Law at Peking University's School of Medical Humanities, told the "medical community" that it is wrong for patients to cut in line and doctors to explode, but "the key is to reflect from the perspective of hospital management and how to reduce and avoid similar things." ”
Wang Yue, Professor of Medical Ethics and Law, School of Medical Ethics and Law, Peking University
"For example, all walks of life have adopted the reservation system and the call system, which can greatly reduce the quarrels caused by cutting in line." As you can see in the video, there is a long queue at the entrance of the hospital department, which will make the patient's medical experience very bad. ”
Professor Wang Yue believes that in this matter, we should not consider who is right and who is wrong, but should reflect on the mechanism, for example, why will patients be given the opportunity to cut in line?
"The reason why patients go to photograph doctors is also related to the service attitude of medical staff. To improve the service attitude, we must start from reducing the current work intensity of doctors, through this epidemic, it has been found that the work intensity of our medical staff is too large, and it is entirely possible to achieve high-quality services for doctors through management measures. ”
In response to the final punishment of the hospital, Professor Wang Yue said: "Even if the patient cuts in line, the doctor should not explode, so I think that the punishment of the doctor is necessary, of course, the punishment here and his fault should be in line with a proportional principle, and the punishment should not be too heavy." ”
He suggested that we can refer to the reform measures of military hospitals in recent years, "due to the adjustment of the salary incentive system and the no longer implement the system of more work and more gains, the medical experience and satisfaction of patients in military hospitals have been well improved, and disputes have been significantly reduced." ”
Source: Medical community
Editor-in-charge: Zheng Huaju
Proofreader: Zang Hengjia
Plate making: Xue Jiao