Impersonal medical care. Role of the pathologist in its evolution.
An evaluation of the change in the former close relationship between the patient and his physician, and the contribution of the pathologist to its development, is presented. The effect of these changes on the interest in and care of the patient by all in the hospital in this changing medical scene is decried; the patient loses much. The problem of impersonal care now involves all hospital care and all fields of medicine. The decline of interest in the autopsy and the formalization of this denigration of the autopsy by the Accreditation Commission has done harm to pathology and the care of the patient; the autopsy is still an important quality control of such care. Further, this change in the medical scene has promoted the development of the employee status of the doctor, with its further loss of independence, individual interest, and personalized care by all in the hospital, even the physician, and inevitably has led to his loss of the protection of due process. Seven recommendations are offered to recapture the old one-to-one doctor-patient arrangement, to yield a combination of tender loving and scientific care for the patient. An active effort must be made to reverse the influence of some of the forces working to the disadvantage of doctor and patient in the changing medical scene.
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002961:Civil Rights; D005251:Fees, Medical; D006075:Governing Board; D006801:Humans; D010336:Pathology; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011367:Professional Staff Committees; D011787:Quality of Health Care