PRACTICE PARTNER
PRACTICE POINTS
The College often receives complaints from patients about physician communications. Below is a case
study that, although fictionalized, is representative of the type of communication breakdown that the Col-
lege sees. We regularly present, in this column, cases that are drawn from an amalgamation of the themes
and issues we see in the context of our regulatory work including Complaints and Discipline cases.
Behind Schedule:
A Study in
Communication
Breakdown
D
r. Cape has had a local family
practice in town for decades.
She has treated hundreds of
patients and her colleagues con-
sider her to be an excellent physician.
On one particularly busy day, Dr. Cape
was running behind schedule and saw that
her next patient was an elderly man, Mr.
Jones, who liked to t