Ethics Consult: Make Unvaccinated Patients Use Telehealth Only?

Welcome to Ethics Consult — an opportunity to discuss, debate (respectfully), and learn together. We select an ethical dilemma from a true patient care case. You vote on your decision in the case and, next week, we’ll reveal how you all made the call. Bioethicist Jacob M. Appel, MD, JD, will also weigh in with an ethical framework to help you learn and prepare.

Psychiatrist Emily Smith, MD, runs a private practice in what’s quickly becoming a COVID-19 hotspot with a low vaccination rate. Aside from movement disorders, she typically doesn’t need to see patients in person, but many of them enjoy face-to-face interaction. As the number of cases in the area rises, Smith institutes a policy to keep her staff, patients, and herself safe: anyone without proof of vaccination will only receive care via telehealth.

Jacob M. Appel, MD, JD, is director of ethics education in psychiatry and a member of the institutional review board at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. He holds an MD from Columbia University, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a bioethics MA from Albany Medical College.

And check out some of our past Ethics Consult cases:

Let Oil Tycoon Jump Liver Transplant Line?

Help Family Have Child for Marrow Donation?

Report Mothers’ Prenatal Drug Use?

Last Updated August 06, 2021