Like a mystery shopper, AMA will decide on use of undercover patients
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
June 18, 2008
The ethics council of the American Medical Association (AMA) will weigh in on the practice of using undercover patients to measure their healthcare experience, reports the Associated Press. Many hospitals already employ such tactics, but with AMA endorsement the practice could be come more widespread. The argument for using such tactics is that better patient care would be delivered if physicians were rated by patients only concerned with measuring their experience, and not with their ailments.
However, many physicians oppose the practice, saying that working on a patient presenting with fake symptoms takes away time from those patients who are in need of care. The proposal does address this concern along with the ideas that doctors should be alerted to the potential for an undercover patients. Also, the proposal says physicians should not suffer negative outcomes resulting from a bad review from an undercover patient.
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