At the dental clinic today, a middle aged African American women who spoke minimal english came in needing teeth cleaning. She has stage III or IV lymphoma and from her pano, it looked like the cancer has already transferred to her bones. She was a cash patient and did not bring enough money for the treatment. Would you treat her for a minimal amount or even for free? What if other patients found it to be unfair?
What would you do in this situation?
- Thread starter sweeteepy
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Assuming you're capable of communicating with her and you're confident in your ability to treat her I would say you should treat her because IMO it's the right thing to do.
Prices are negotiable and money isn't everything. While shadowing, my dentist mentioned some kind of program to me where you can give some patients free care that can't normally afford it (it was something like that but it was a year ago so I'm having a hard time remembering it).
In regards to other people finding out about the free/discounted treatment, I don't think that it's anyone's business other than the dentist and the patients. Assuming it's a private practice, the dentist can run their business anyway they choose. Going to doctors and dentists isn't very cheap and I would hope they could sympathize.
Prices are negotiable and money isn't everything. While shadowing, my dentist mentioned some kind of program to me where you can give some patients free care that can't normally afford it (it was something like that but it was a year ago so I'm having a hard time remembering it).
In regards to other people finding out about the free/discounted treatment, I don't think that it's anyone's business other than the dentist and the patients. Assuming it's a private practice, the dentist can run their business anyway they choose. Going to doctors and dentists isn't very cheap and I would hope they could sympathize.
N
NAVY DDS 2010
What if other patients found it to be unfair? My question to you is how would they even know? It would be against HIPAA for this info to get to other patients.
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Technically, other patients should not know what this lady is paying due to confidentiality.
So it would be up to me whether I would like to provide treatment for her.
I would go ahead and do the cleaning but if there are more issues than just that, I would refer her to the dental schools/low-cost clinics nearby that do offer low rates.
This is what happened when I was working with a dentist one time. A lady came in with no money and her teeth were hurting really badly. The doc actually spent almost an hour on the phone calling low-cost clinics... so even though she didnt do the work herself, she did make sure this lady got help from somewhere.
So it would be up to me whether I would like to provide treatment for her.
I would go ahead and do the cleaning but if there are more issues than just that, I would refer her to the dental schools/low-cost clinics nearby that do offer low rates.
This is what happened when I was working with a dentist one time. A lady came in with no money and her teeth were hurting really badly. The doc actually spent almost an hour on the phone calling low-cost clinics... so even though she didnt do the work herself, she did make sure this lady got help from somewhere.
