Some Fla. ob-gyns refuse obese patients

MIAMI, May 17 (UPI) -- Some South Florida obstetrics-gynecology physicians say they are refusing healthy patients who are obese or very overweight because they riskier to treat.

A poll of 105 obstetrics-gynecology practices by the South Florida Sun Sentinel indicates 15 have some type of weight cutoff for new patients -- some start at 200 pounds, some 250 pounds.

Some of the doctors say they fear for their exam tables or other equipment, but others say they are trying to avoid higher complication rates.

"People don't realize the risk we're taking by taking care of these patients," Dr. Albert Triana, whose two-physician practice in South Miami declines patients classified as obese, told the Sun Sentinel. "There's more risk of something going wrong and more risk of getting sued. Everything is more complicated with an obese patient in [gynecology] surgeries and in [pregnancies]."

The American Medical Association says doctors cannot reject patients because of race, gender, sexual orientation or infectious diseases.

However, physicians are allowed to refuse patients they say they lack the medical skills to treat, and the doctors should send a patient a notice and refer them to other doctors, the Sun Sentinel says.

Some doctors say they routinely send obese patients to specialists for pregnancies, but some say a healthy obese patient does not need a specialist and this is the first time they have heard patients being turned away solely because they are obese, the Sun Sentinel reports.