mandatory reports

Your patient says she was inappropriately touched by a doctor

What is your obligation? photo: istockphoto. com

Your patient has just told you that the rheumatologist to whom you had recently referred her had touched her breast during a physical exam in a way that she felt was inappropriate and sexual in nature. What is your obligation? Without a doubt, you must file a report with the College Registrar. Under the Regulated Health Professions Act( RHPA), when a patient provides you with information that gives you reasonable grounds to believe that they have been sexually abused by a physician or another regulated health professional – as this patient just did – you have a duty to make a mandatory report. Under the RHPA, the report must be made in writing to the Registrar of the college to which the health professional in question belongs.“ This is not optional,” said Dr. Rocco Gerace, College Registrar.“ The legislation is clear on this issue – you need to act in the public interest and let the Registrar know of the incident.” Where information regarding sexual abuse is obtained from the patient, physicians must

Issue 4, 2016 Dialogue 37