As an internist, I’ve personally been threatened by a mob boss who didn’t want to be discharged from the hospital, overwhelmed by hordes of Roma families suspicious of medical care for a dying king and asked to withhold information from the public that would be detrimental to a prominent person.
Those are intimidating challenges to professionalism and ethics.VIP syndrome is the tendency of clinicians to treat influential or famous patients differently because they feel pressured to accede to the VIP’s wishes.Psychiatrists have identified three types of “special” patients who can create difficulty by dazzling or intimidating the care team: celebrities, VIPs and potentates.Celebrities focus unwanted media attention on medical care.