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- From: englhq@rosie.uh.edu (Franklet, Duane L.)
- Newsgroups: sci.med
- Subject: Can't Touch This
- Date: 18 Nov 1992 13:15 CST
- Organization: University of Houston
- Lines: 27
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <18NOV199213152219@rosie.uh.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: rosie.uh.edu
- News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41
-
- One of our local news channels here in Houston is running a segment
- on local women who are HIV+. Last night one woman described how she
- found out--she was going to have some sort of nose operation
- and the morning she was scheduled to go in, her doctor
- called and said, Nope, Don't bother. I'm not going to do it.
- Turns out she had tested positive. This was surprising to me,
- and raised some questions.
-
- Was her experience the exception or the rule? In other words,
- what percentage of surgeons do this type of screening? I'm not
- interested in the ethics, pros and cons, etc.--we've seen
- those discussions in this newsgroup. What I'm interested to know is
- the percentage of Drs. who do actively screen out patients on this
- basis. e.g. (Of the ten surgeons who work here, 1 won't see HIV
- patients. Or 9 won't)
-
- Do clinics or hospitals have policies on this, or is it up to the
- individual doctor?
-
- If testing takes place as a matter of routine, so that those results
- are "available" prior to the operation, what sort of arrangements
- are made when a person does test positive? I can't imagine that the
- norm is for the doctor to call at the last minute and cancel out.
-
- ____________________
- Duane Franklet
- englhq@jetson.uh.edu
-