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Timing must be a primary consideration when contemplating termination of treatment. To avoid abandonment, a physician must give a patient a reasonable opportunity to safely continue care with another healthcare provider. Patients with acute conditions may find it next to impossible to safely locate a new provider. For various other patients — the indigent, rural dwellers, individuals with rare conditions or combinations of conditions — it could take longer than average. Safely dismissing patients in these circumstances may take additional effort, planning and documentation.¹

A patient with a potential post-operative complication should not be terminated until the complication is resolved.

Some (fortunately rare) patient actions, such as a patient’s threat to harm a physician, call for immediate termination with no intermediate treatment period. Other patient actions, such as non-payment of bills or noncompliance with care recommendations, are reasons for termination but do not eliminate a physician’s duty to give a patient sufficient notice to obtain alternative medical treatment. Consider the following case, in which the physician believed the patient’s initiation of legal action against his partner justified his immediate termination of the patient relationship.*