Doctor's, can you "divorce" a difficult patient?!
Question: and refuse to treat them?
Answers: and refuse to treat them?
Yes they can. The way this is done is after a patient displays inappropriate behavior, repeatedly refuses to pay a bill, or threatens a doctor's liability, the doctor reserves the right to send the patient a formal notification that they will not provide healthcare to them anymore. I know because my dad is a doctor and I worked reception in his office for several months.
They refer the difficult patient to another doctor for second / third... etc opinion!
Seriously, it may be possible to refuse for a problem that is not very urgent or life threatening. A patient who is seriously ill or in agony, can't be refused treatment.
Hope it helps.
Good luck!
Yes! I work for urologists and they have released some patients because they were drug seekers or they were difficult.