General Medical Officer (GMO) Manual: Administrative Section
Standbys
Department of the Navy
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
Overview
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Manual states that patients are to be interviewed and examined in surroundings designed to ensure reasonable privacy. This includes the right to have a person of one's own sex present during certain examinations, treatments, or procedures performed by a health professional of the opposite sex.
The presence of a standby serves a dual purpose:
- To place the patient more at ease.
- To protect a provider if misconduct against the provider is later alleged.
- The use of standbys is strongly encouraged during the sensitive or potentially compromising physical examination of patients.
In circumstances where protection against possible misconduct allegations is considered necessary, the name of the standby should routinely be entered in the patient's medical record.
Each medical treatment facility is required to have written guidance on the request and use of standbys during a patient examination. That guidance will include the requirements for standby education and training and the procedures for identifying and reporting allegations of provider misconduct.
Reference
Prepared by LCDR Michael Bandy, JAGC, USN, Medico-Legal Affairs, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (1999).