Doctor Reprimanded for Calling Patient Fat

[lawyerlee]

What are your thoughts about this?

I find it highly disturbing that a professional would be disciplined by his licensing agency for essentially hurting a patient's feelings.

I can't tell from this story if he actually called her "fat" or simply spoke to her about a need to lose weight, but either, way I don't not think he needs to be disciplined.

However, I think it is an extremely ineffective strategy to call a patient "fat". I am overweight, and my doctor and I discuss things I can do to be healthier quite often. But she is never degrading or insulting. She is empathetic and helpful. And even though it is hard to have someone talk to you about being overweight, I do agree that it is an important part of a doctor's job to do so. It's all in the delivery, though.

Doctor Reprimanded for Calling Patient Fat (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=1063448&page=1)
Dr. Terry Bennett Is Outraged After State Medical Board Found Him at Fault for Suggesting Patient Lose Weight
ABC News

Aug. 24, 2005 -- Dr. Terry Bennett believes in being honest with his patients, but one woman was so offended about the way he spoke to her about her weight, she filed a complaint with the state Board of Medicine.

The New Hampshire state attorney general launched an investigation, asked Bennett to take a medical education course and admit he has made a mistake.

"Part of my job is to tell you the truth," Bennett said. "You come in here, you pay $75 to sit on the couch. I'm not going to sit here and talk about the weather with you. If you're noticeably obese, I know that you are going to have future health problems."

Obesity increases the risk of serious chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, some cancer and arthritis and is a contributing factor in many deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"They're trying to define me as a disruptive physician because I told somebody the truth," Bennett said.

The case has some medical professionals concerned.

"We are really walking on thin ice when we have the legal system coming into a doctor's office and saying what we can or cannot do," said Dr. Mark Fendrick, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan.

[wendalah]

I can't tell from this story if he actually called her "fat" or simply spoke to her about a need to lose weight

Neither can I, so I can't really make a call as to whether he was out of line or not.

[bookworm]

The original story I heard said he told her she had to lose weight for her health and for her "love life."

If he made the latter part of the comment, I think that was way out of line. The first part is common sense, and pretty much a doctor's obligation (says the significantly-overweight-but-working-on-it woman).


ETA: by "way out of line," I don't mean "he should be disciplined." Rather, I mean "I'd find another doctor." Comments about my health are entirely appropriate, but the "love life" stuff is not (assuming that's not the reason I'm at the doctor).

[Kimberland30]

Well the latter part of that comment wouldn't have been out of line if she were complaining about her love life...but who knows. I've talked to my Dr. about lack of mood and such...but if he were to come right out and say that I needed to lose weight because of health and sexual reasons, I'd be offended.

I'd like to see what comments he actually made and what the context was before deciding if he was inappropriate or not.

[tenofcups]

I've seen a few of the reports and can't really tell either. At a glance, it seems that not only was he within his rights, he had an *obligation* to tell her what he did. The only way it could possibly be wrong is if he was extremely denigrating or insulting in the way that he said it and nothing I've seen reports exactly what he said.

[notkk]

I briefly caught an interview with this guy on the Today Show this morning. Apparently what she took offense to was that he said, essentially "you're going to out-live your (also obese) husband and studies have shown that no one finds obese women attractive, so you should think about how this will affect your future." AND he saw nothing wrong with basically saying "you're husband's going to die and no one will love you." Katie Couric asked him about this and he didn't deny that this is what he said - and he found the whole thing "ridiculous." He was, frankly, an arrogant a$$hole.

Apparently the woman said that she didn't have a problem with discussing her obesity in terms of medical implications, but that this crossed the line. I have to say that I agree with her.

[jesvet]

Well that is a whole different ball of wax. Sharing your medical knowledge is one thing, but taking a personal dig at someone's attractiveness level is not professional.

[MLA]

Just telling a patient that she's overweight and needs to do something about it doesn't seem like a problem to me. People need to hear these things sometimes. Often family members and friends don't feel comfortable broaching the subject, and I think it's a doctor's responsibility to do so if the patient's health is at risk.

However . . .
I briefly caught an interview with this guy on the Today Show this morning. Apparently what she took offense to was that he said, essentially "you're going to out-live your (also obese) husband and studies have shown that no one finds obese women attractive, so you should think about how this will affect your future." AND he saw nothing wrong with basically saying "you're husband's going to die and no one will love you." Katie Couric asked him about this and he didn't deny that this is what he said - and he found the whole thing "ridiculous." He was, frankly, an arrogant a$$hole.

Apparently the woman said that she didn't have a problem with discussing her obesity in terms of medical implications, but that this crossed the line. I have to say that I agree with her.


with the above post in mind, I'd say he was way out of line. Sounds like a jerk.

[lawyerlee]

I briefly caught an interview with this guy on the Today Show this morning. Apparently what she took offense to was that he said, essentially "you're going to out-live your (also obese) husband and studies have shown that no one finds obese women attractive, so you should think about how this will affect your future." AND he saw nothing wrong with basically saying "you're husband's going to die and no one will love you." Katie Couric asked him about this and he didn't deny that this is what he said - and he found the whole thing "ridiculous." He was, frankly, an arrogant a$$hole.
Whoa. That is ridiculous. :(

[camberne]

briefly caught an interview with this guy on the Today Show this morning. Apparently what she took offense to was that he said, essentially "you're going to out-live your (also obese) husband and studies have shown that no one finds obese women attractive, so you should think about how this will affect your future." AND he saw nothing wrong with basically saying "you're husband's going to die and no one will love you." Katie Couric asked him about this and he didn't deny that this is what he said - and he found the whole thing "ridiculous." He was, frankly, an arrogant a$$hole.
My doctor is pretty blunt, but he would never be THAT bad!!! I'm fat, I know I'm fat, I don't need anyone to tell me that...and I'm working on it. But, it's my doctor's job to point out things that will/do affect my health, and my weight is one of them. However, I agree that he stepped over the line of decency here. And, as a rebuttal, my husband didn't know me when I was thin. Met me when I was obese and married me. So :p on stupid doctor man!!

[msnicolea]

Within the context of a medical visit and directly related to health--appropriate.

Comments about attractiveness, etc. . .--totally out of line and, I think, reprimandable. He has no business making judgments about her potential as a mate or anything else not related specifically to her physical health and well-being. What a pig.

[evagatesgreen2]

CONCORD, N.H. - The state is investigating a doctor accused of telling a patient she was so obese she might only be attractive to black men and advising another to shoot herself following brain surgery.

“Let’s face it, if your husband were to die tomorrow, who would want you?” the state Board of Medicine says Dr. Terry Bennett told the overweight patient in June 2004.

“Well, men might want you, but not the types you want to want you. Might even be a black guy,” it quoted him as saying, based on the woman’s complaint.
The board said it also is taking a second look at a 2001 allegation — deemed unfounded at the time — that Bennett told a woman recovering from brain surgery to buy a pistol and shoot herself to end her suffering.

Bennett made national news last week when the complaint from the obese woman became public without any mention of the racial comment. But Senior Assistant Attorney General Richard Head, who leads the state Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau, said Tuesday the woman complained about the racial remark, not about being lectured.

In a telephone interview Tuesday from Rochester, Bennett denied any wrongdoing and defended his message to her, saying he has read polls that say black men prefer overweight women.

Bennett added that he is angry the board is reconsidering the 2001 complaint.

“That patient is currently in a nursing home completely demented, tied to a chair drooling on herself and doesn’t recognize anybody,” said Bennett, 67. “She was in pretty nearly that condition at the time she filed that complaint.”

Bennett’s lawyer, Charles Douglas, said his client is being attacked by the board, which, by its own rules, does not discipline doctors for bedside manner.

“If a patient does not like the message, go to another doctor,” Douglas said.

Head said the 2001 complaint is being considered as part of a review of Bennett’s overall adherence to medical ethics. The state Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau investigates complaints against doctors, though the board decides how to act on them.

Head said privacy laws prevent him from disclosing the women’s names.

The board can fine, reprimand or suspend doctors. It also can revoke doctors’ licenses or require them to attend classes or treatment. A hearing is planned Dec. 7.

Earlier this year, Bennett rejected an effort by the board to resolve the latest complaint. The board wanted him to admit he had made a mistake and to attend a class on medical ethics, which he called “touchy-feely school.”

Bennett previously was cited by the board in 1995 when, as part of a settlement to avoid discipline, he admitted lying on his 1992 and 1993 medical license renewal applications about being denied hospital privileges. He was fined $1,000.

[flygirl]

"you pay $75 to sit on the couch"
So is he a psychiatrist? No where in the article does it say what kind of doctor he is. He's still an ass based on subsequent interviews, & shouldn't have made a racial comment, but it does put the converstaion in perspective.