a patient-written contract?

[multiplier]

I've had 2 surgeries in my life, Lasik and HTs. In both cases, I had to sign pages of paperwork that detailed things the doctors weren't responsible for. Has anyone gotten surgery and required the doctor to sign one's own paperwork that explains what the doc IS responsible for?

 

Example:

"If the donor scar becomes stretched due to doctor's methods, a repair procedure will be performed free of charge."

 

Doesn't this only seem fair to ensure patient and doctor agree to all terms explicitly?

[TC17]

In the United States, the freedom to contract is very broad. You're free to bargain for almost any terms you want. If you don't agree with the boilerplate language found in the form contract the doctor presents, you can refuse to sign it and make a counter offer. The doctor then has the choice whether to go along with the terms you propose, make a counter offer to you, or simply refuse to perform the surgery.

[mahhong]

I think most respected doctors will repair problems that are down to their negligence or mistakes made on their end, but the chances of getting a 'patient contract' are slim, if only for the simple fact that it would be unfair on each individual patient if it was up to them to develop tailored made terms.

 

Ultimately when you have an initial consultation you should be able to ask any of these questions openly and most good doctors will say upfront if they make a mistake or cause a problem, directly or indirectly, they will fix it. Of course problems that are due to nothing more than bad luck or unforeseen circumstances (for example, poor yield due to patient characteristics, which is rare) a doctor will be pretty quick to point out they cannot be held responsible. It's about good faith though, really; doctor's with great reputations have no reason or desire to see them damaged, so they will happily repair mistakes or negligent problems. There are some examples of doctors performing these kinds of services for patients that I've read on this very forum.

 

So, ultimately, although I could be wrong, I just don't think a doctor will sign anything unless it's been written and approved by them or their lawyers. This is because they are providing a service, it should be a good and fair service, and it should be identical for all patients. Tailoring terms of service would theoretically run the risk of making some patients lose out to other more savvy patients. It's not the best example, but if you're a lawyer and you tailor a contract for your own HT, that's probably going to be a better contract than what your average Joe would tailor.

 

I see where you're coming from, and I think in theory you could go to a doctor with your terms of service, but they would pretty much definitely refuse it out of principle. They'd have to have it checked out by their lawyers (costly) and it would make your service different to that of other customers, which would be unfair. Ultimately a good doctor should be happy to say on gentleman's terms what they would do if mistakes were made or problems arose and it should even be in their own contract - I just don't think it would be possible for them to sign something someone else has created. They run their own shops and they need to make sure every customer has the right to a good and equal service. To be honest I would be more dubious of a doctor that was willing to "do deals" - especially if he said he'd give you a 'safer' or 'better' service than other clients! That would be essentially unethical and, with a good doctor, unnecessary I think.

[wb280]

In Asia, whereby people are still considerably more conservative, its unlikely that we patients will challenge the physcian and draft our own contract. Never heard of such, and i do not think its gonna change anytime soon.

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

I have had a few patients over the years that have requested to change some of the wording in the consent form prior to the procedure. This was done by either adding or subtracting items. In most cases I had no problems with their requests.

[RCWest]

It's true that most ethical surgeons will fix a problem free of charge. Especially if they know you can air your problems on this site