• The patient does not follow the doctor’s orders. Medical care is a team effort. Your doctor spends time with you to understand your medical needs and your personal health goals. When he or she makes treatment recommendations that you accept, it is expected that you will follow the instructions in an honest and dedicated effort to get well. For example, if you are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, your doctor may place you on a diet that restricts sugar, foods high in carbohydrates and alcohol. If you, after receiving these orders, insist on eating McDonald’s cheeseburgers with a super-sized vanilla milkshake every day for lunch, you are disregarding what is best for your own health. When you repeatedly ignore the doctor’s orders and act in ways that jeopardize your health or prevent improvement, the doctor may eventually ask you to look for a new practice. In this case, the doctor may reason that he or she is unable to serve you because you ignore advice and may truly believe it is in your best interest to work with someone who can elicit the type of changes you need to make in your life.

Likewise, if a patient's medical habits jeopardize others, including the doctor's other patients, he or she may ask the patient to leave the practice. For example, many pediatricians have been in the news lately for refusing to see children whose parents do not believe in vaccines. Los Angeles pediatrician Dr. Charles Goodman posted a message on the practice's Facebook page at the height of California's measles outbreak that the practice would not see patients who were not current on shots. "Parents who choose not to give measles shots, they're not just putting their kids at risk, but they're also putting other kids at risk -- especially kids in my waiting room," Goodman told the New York Times.

• The patient does not maintain a financial account in good standing. Let’s face it -- the doctor has to make a living, too. It is understood when you receive care (and you probably signed something to this effect at some point in your relationship with the physician) that you will pay the portion of your invoice that is not covered by insurance. If you are not keeping your account current and paying what is due to the practice, your doctor can fire you due to non-payment.
• The patient acts inappropriately in the office. There should always be an element of respect among doctors and patients. There should also be respect shown to other patients and staff in the practice’s office and waiting area. If you become angry, loud, obnoxious or rude with anyone at the office while visiting your doctor, you can be asked to leave and never to return. So remember, even in situations when you may become upset, keep your composure and act in a mature and responsible way, or your doctor just might fire you.
  
  

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