title: Physician-patient sexual contact. Prevalence and problems.
abstract: To document the current prevalence of physician-patient sexual contact and to estimate its effect on involved patients, 10,000 family practitioners, internists, obstetrician-gynecologists, and surgeons were surveyed. Of the 1,891 respondents, 9% acknowledged sexual contact with 1 or more patients. Even in the unlikely case that none of the nonrespondents had sexual contact with patients, its prevalence among all 10,000 physicians surveyed would still be 2%. Of respondents, 23% had at least 1 patient who reported sexual contact with another physician; 63% thought this contact was "always harmful" to the patients. Almost all (94%) responding physicians opposed sexual contact with current patients; 37% also opposed sexual contact with former patients. More than half of respondents (56%) indicated that physician-patient sexual contact had never been addressed in their training; only 3% had participated in a continuing education course focusing on this issue. Clear and enforceable medical ethics codes concerning physician-patient sexual contact are needed, as well as preventive educational programs for medical schools and residency programs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Gartrell
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Milliken
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Goodson
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thiemann
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lo
mesh_terms: D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D015995:Prevalence; D028743:Professional Misconduct; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035502:Trust; D014481:United States