We are Doctors, Not Providers! Save

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet…

—William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1)

The ACP has published a new ethics/position policy paper proclaiming that the term ‘provider’ should not be used to describe physicians, and using the blanket term undermines physicians’ ethical responsibility, clinical integrity, and professionalism. Referring to physicians as providers reduces the patient-physician relationship to a transaction and does not recognize differences in roles, responsibilities, and training among health care professionals. The paper is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Language in health care has ethical and practical implications and should uphold the ethics of the patient-physician relationship, which is fundamental to the practice of medicine. ACP’s view is that the words physician and provider are not interchangeable and using them synonymously also reflects the increasing commercialization of today’s practice environment. ACP says that the current use of the word provider in reference to institutions, insurers, and health care professionals lumps impersonal entities with humans and is not transparent to patients.

Overall, the recommendation reads as follows: