If you have an existing doctor-patient relationship, your doctor has a duty to make certain that you receive any critical, ongoing care that you need. Failing to do so is considered patient abandonment \u2014 which is a type of medical malpractice.<\/p>\n
Patient abandonment can be obvious \u2014 when your doctor suddenly drops you from his or her practice without adequate warning or time to find a replacement physician \u2014 but it can also be so subtle that patients may not even realize that they\u2019re being mistreated:<\/p>\n
\u2014 Your doctor goes on an extended vacation and doesn\u2019t arrange for anyone to cover his or her patients, causing you to run out of critical blood pressure medication.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Your surgeon doesn\u2019t bother to give you critical post-surgical instructions on wound care, and you develop an infection as a result.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Your insurance disputes a charge, leaving you with an unexpected balance at the surgeon\u2019s office. Because you can\u2019t afford to pay it, the surgeon refuses to see you for follow-up visits.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Your doctor prescribes an antidepressant that has serious, known side-effects, but he doesn\u2019t ask you to come back for a follow-up appointment for the usual six months.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Your obstetrician promises to be there when you deliver your baby, but you end up with his or her partner because the obstetrician\u2019s son has a ball game the day you deliver. You had no warning that your obstetrician ever hands off deliveries.<\/p>\n
\u2014 You tell the doctor at a hospital that you don\u2019t think you\u2019re stable enough to be discharged after surgery, but he or she bows to pressure from the insurance company and releases you anyhow. You later have to be readmitted due to reoccurring symptoms.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Your doctor advises you to go directly to the hospital from his or her office but doesn\u2019t call the hospital to explain why you need care, take any steps to secure your admittance, or follow up to see if you received proper care.<\/p>\n
These are just some of the examples of the way that physicians can fail to deliver critical, continuous care, leaving patients distressed, injured and untreated.<\/p>\n