Page 46 - 2022 Risk Basics - Surgical Practice

SVMIC Risk Basics: Surgical Practice

Patient Notification

There should be a consistent method for notifying patients of

ALL test results and instructing them to call the office if they
have not received the results within the expected timeframe.

These instructions to the patients, as well as actual patient
notification, should be documented in the medical record.

Although instructing the patient to call for test results does not
absolve the doctor of the duty to inform the patient, it does act

as another safety net to ensure that important test results do

not get overlooked and is a legitimate means of vesting the
patient in his/her own healthcare. The more layers of

redundancy that can be built into a system, the better.

It should be noted that, irrespective of a facility’s statutory
responsibility to report test results, (e.g., mammograms), it

does not alleviate the physician of responsibility of ensuring

the patient has been notified of all test results as previously
outlined.

The American Medical Association Code of Medical Ethics

Opinion 2.1.5 outlines expectations of physicians to ensure
3
that test results are communicated appropriately to patients:

 The patient (or surrogate decision maker if the patient

lacks decision-making capacity) is informed about when
he or she can reasonably expect to learn the results of

clinical tests and how those results will be conveyed.

3 https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2019-06/code-of-medical-ethics-chapter-2.pdf

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