Professional Ethics, Patient Rights, Informed Consent, and Mandatory Reporting
What this domain tests
This domain tests the fiduciary and legal duties that accompany a chiropractic license: honesty, boundaries, confidentiality, informed consent, patient access to records, non-abandonment, and reporting obligations. Questions often ask what to do when a patient’s safety or a third party’s welfare is at risk.
Ethics and patient rights
- The patient’s welfare comes before financial gain. Avoid fee splitting, misleading advertisements, unnecessary treatment, and conflicts of interest.
- Maintain professional boundaries. Sexual contact with a patient is prohibited and is unprofessional conduct.
- Protect confidentiality under Georgia law and federal privacy rules, but do not promise absolute secrecy when reporting duties apply.
- Patients have the right to information, to refuse care, to access their records, and to be treated without discrimination.
Informed consent
- Explain the diagnosis, proposed care, material risks and benefits, reasonable alternatives, and the consequences of refusal in terms the patient can understand.
- Document the discussion and the patient’s decision. A signature without understanding is not valid consent.
- For minors, obtain consent from a parent or legal guardian as required by law, and document the authority.
Mandatory reporting
- Chiropractors are mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse or neglect to Georgia child protective authorities.
- Suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of elder or disabled adults must be reported to the appropriate protective agency.
- Report in good faith and promptly; do not investigate or confront the suspected abuser. The report is not a breach of confidentiality.
Worked example
A 15-year-old patient presents with patterned bruising and a vague explanation. The chiropractor provides needed care, documents the objective findings, and reports the suspicion to child protective services. The chiropractor does not need the parent’s permission to report and should not delay the report to “confirm” the abuse. The chart should record the report, not the details of an investigation the chiropractor is not authorized to conduct.
Traps that cost marks
A signed consent form is not proof of informed consent. Confidentiality does not block a mandatory abuse report. Do not abandon a patient without notice, records, and referral options. Do not let financial incentives affect clinical recommendations.