Hey Baby, You Look Sexy In That C-Collar

[hatelilpeepees]

Read about this on a social network: A female patient was transported by an EMS crew after a car accident (minor). A week later, one of the medics, calls her at home to check up on her condition (got her number from hospital face sheet) did not ask her for her information at time of call. He then segways the conversation into asking her out on a date. She declined, and was kind of laughing about it in the chat room.

So here is the ethical question. He was guilty of violating HIPPA, and put the hospital at risk. But if you take that away, is he violating any ethics or morals by asking a former patient out on a date ?

Instead of stealing her number, what if he bumped into her at the grocery store while off-duty ?

It feels so wrong to me, but I can not pinpoint a real reason to say you should not do this.

[flamingemt2011]

I see nothing wrong with the second scenario, I met lots of guys that way in the early days, or the opposite --------- they would see me in a gay bar and remember that I was their medic and buy me a drink.

[Vorenus]

Instead of stealing her number, what if he bumped into her at the grocery store while off-duty ?

Nothing wrong there, as long as he`s not using information he got when he was being the responsible health care professional to get her round in any fool way.

[hatelilpeepees]

Then why does if feel so "icky" ? Maybe its a female thang.

[Chief1C]

On a side note.. I had different thoughts when I seen sexy and c-collar. Not bad ones, just... Anyhoo.. So I was on eBay selling some things to clean out my closet. People that are into fetishes, sell like oxygen masks, BVM's, collars... at prices five or six times their actual value. Hell, I could make more selling EMS equipment to sick bastards, than to EMS providers!

[paramedicmike]

It feels so wrong to me, but I can not pinpoint a real reason to say you should not do this.

So it's not enough to say that it's wrong because he took (i.e. stole) the phone number from the patient's chart? It's not enough to say it's wrong because of the HIPAA violation? It's not enough to say it's wrong because it's just plain creepy that this medic would pseudo-stalk this patient? (I use "pseudo-stalk" loosely. If he stole her phone number, what else did he take and what did he do with it? The framework for the possibility of really bad behaviour is already there simply by calling her on the number she provided for the chart. What else did he take? Address? SSN?)

It is generally and widely accepted as unethical for health care providers to date their patients. The patient/provider relationship is built on, among other things in this situation, a patient who's particularly vulnerable considering the situation under which she needed care. To take advantage of that, as this medic did, is to violate both the trust and confidentiality expected by the patient under any patient care situation.

edit: grammar correction and thought clarification. no content change.

Edited November 8, 2011 by paramedicmike

[Just Plain Ruff]

So what if the patient came to him while he was on shift. The patient made the contact not the other way around? Is it still wrong?

Taking info from the face sheet is NOT COOL and it is creepy and it is a violation of HIPAA since you are using that information for personal gain not medical treatment. During patient care you had a need to know. After patient care was over you had no need to know so it's wrong.

Edited November 8, 2011 by Ruffems

[paramedicmike]

So what if the patient came to him while he was on shift. The patient made the contact not the other way around? Is it still wrong?

Yes. It is still wrong. If nothing else it should raise an awful lot of questions:

Is she nuts?

Does she do this often?

Is she looking for her proverbial knight in shining armour? This then leads back to, "Is she nuts?"

Depending on the seriousness of the wreck/injury is she in her right mind?

In the end it doesn't matter who initiates it. It's considered unethical, and just a bad idea overall, to date patients.

The more I think about this, though, the more I think the medic in question is just sleazy. What a creep.

[flamingemt2011]

Why is it wrong in the scenario of they bumped into each other in the grocery store ?   People meet in weird ways all of the time, so just because he treated her one time, he can never see her again ?  

To me this is a far more civil way of meeting than the current generation's way of asking for your nude pics on myspace, facebook, craigslist, or some chat room.  The Paramedic is not her doctor.  So if her house caught fire, the responding fireman could not date her ?And why is she nuts if she chases him ?

Edited November 8, 2011 by flamingemt2011

[Vorenus]

Is she nuts?

Does she do this often?

Is she looking for her proverbial knight in shining armour? This then leads back to, "Is she nuts?"

Depending on the seriousness of the wreck/injury is she in her right mind?

Why does she has to be nuts? It may only be the case that she likes his looks and thinks his sympathetic after chatting with him - what`s the difference between your scenario and them first meeting in a bar except the circumstances?