Screening Patients, Part 6: Miscellaneous Red Flags & Difficult Situations

Welcome to the sixth and final installment of this post series on screening potential new (or possibly already-existing) patients.

In previous posts in this series, I’ve covered various potential “orange/red flags” to watch out for when evaluating new or existing patients in your practice, if for no other reason than to have prior notice that they exist, so that you as a doctor can take whatever precautions you feel might be necessary, ranging from a simple “okay, that’s good to know” to “refer them to a colleague–now”, or anything in between.

Today, I’m going to cover a variety-pack of situations or patient types that I consider to be on the latter end of that response spectrum – the “refer them out–now”.  Grab some popcorn and enjoy.

Screening Patients, Part 1: Readiness & Obstinance

Dear patients of the world, this post series is probably going to sound pretty judgmental.

I assure you, it’s not.  Falling into any one (or more) of the categories I’m about to talk about is not going to get you catalogued, reported, thrown out of an office, or barred from receiving care.

It’s just that some of the people out there present certain challenges to various types of doctors that these doctors need to be aware of, because doctors are human, too, and not knowing about these personality/history types of people can lead to serious physician burnout.