There are at least two considerations here: the patient’s perception of a physician’s empathic expression and the physician’s level of comfort with expressing empathy and attending to patients’ emotions.
Physician behavior that generates a patient complaint and ultimately leads to disciplinary action is both legally and ethically problematic—violating both regulatory rules and professional codes.
Dr J. Corey Williams joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Drs Ashley Andreou and Susan M. Cheng: “How Should We Approach Faculty Who Create Hostile Learning Environments for Underrepresented Students and Trainees?”
Using data from comparative effectiveness studies to inform cost-effectiveness analyses or other economic evaluations would strengthen ethical policy making.
Decisions about where and to whose professional stewardship patients are admitted are influenced by federal policies of which physicians might not be aware.