Tag: Provider-Patient Relationship

TMA Office of the General Counsel, September 2017

The patient-physician relationship is grounded in the personal relationship that exists between the physician and the patient. The patient-physician relationship is the result of a contract between a physician and a patient that the doctor will treat the patient with proper professional skill. Although the relationship is contract-based, the contract need not be formal — it can be implied, which means the acts and conduct of the parties demonstrated there was a mutual intention to contract. When that relationship becomes untenable for either party, dissolution of the relationship may become necessary. While both the physician and the patient have the right to terminate the relation-ship, the requirements for termination are more complicated for physicians than for patients.
This white paper discusses the general legal and ethical issues related to termination of the patient-physician relationship. And it includes a form letter.