What's funny about this is a patient is far more likely to fire their doctor than the other way around. SMM MD... stick that in your hat!

@smm md A. Yes, if you are taking my money to buy a service, you are contracting to be my "employee" of sorts. B. DO get too technical here. Parents are not all morons, and if you're leaving one thing out because it is "too technical", some folks wonder what else you're leaving out. C. Agreed-the price of vaccinating being a selling point is absurd, uneducated, and beyond stupid as a consideration on the basis of ROI. What the hell does ROI have to do with the health, welfare, and safety of a child? D. "Discharging" (FIRING) a patient because of an informed decision made by an educated parent is not only shortsighted, but I suggest that it is less than ethical, and more likely based on insurance ramifications more than anything else. If you are not a good enough doctor to build a relationship of trust, and convince parents of something and its' safety, then who is at fault? The child who is not vaccinated? And frankly, their ARE real risks to vaccinations, and they are just as real as the dangers of non-vaccination.

@smm md A. Yes, if you are taking my money to buy a service, you are contracting to be my "employee" of sorts. B. DO get too technical here. Parents are not all morons, and if you're leaving one thing out because it is "too technical", some folks wonder what else you're leaving out. C. Agreed-the price of vaccinating being a selling point is absurd, uneducated, and beyond stupid as a consideration on the basis of ROI. What the hell does ROI have to do with the health, welfare, and safety of a child? D. "Discharging" (FIRING) a patient because of an informed decision made by an educated parent is not only shortsighted, but I suggest that it is less than ethical, and more likely based on insurance ramifications more than anything else. If you are not a good enough doctor to build a relationship of trust, and convince parents of something and its' safety, then who is at fault? The child who is not vaccinated? And frankly, their ARE real risks to vaccinations, and they are just as real as the dangers of non-vaccination.

I don't think that "firing parents" is too harsh a term to describe the practice. I believe in calling a spade a spade. I do question the necessity and/or logic in injecting aluminum into a child, much less formaldehyde, and the idea of causing a child to contract polio via a bad vaccine, or inflicting it upon someone else who is less informed does scare the hell out of me. And I support vaccination. I do not support firing parents for making an informed parenting decision, or lying and claiming that it is to "protect the children". I'm simply not buying that argument at all.

People need to do more research before they make statements like "they would have to have a DISEASE to give it." If you don't understand the subject, don't make harsh comments about it. People can carry diseases and transmit them without even having them. Aside from that, just because you don't currently exhibit symptoms, don't assume you don't have anything. Also, any research can be swayed in any direction, if the researchers are already biased in some way. That is the reason why we have scholarly journals, so when the information is published, others can critique it or perform similar research, or even branch out in different directions. My point - do your homework before making any decision about anything, and please do not just look at wikipedia. And contrary to popular belief these days, there ARE doctors who still care about their patients, and they make recommendations based on this. Sometimes they care more about you than you care about yourself, and that is when they dismiss you. Sometimes it wakes people up, sometimes it doesn't. This time, it's about your kids who don't have the ability to make decisions for themselves, so you have to make them.

What do you tell a parent whose son's speech completely stopped the day after his 12 month MMR shot?? and by 3 is diagnosed with autism...what happenes when the mother joins a support group and so many of the stories are similar? Then what?????? What is your response to that? PS my sister in law was fired by her OBGYN at 35 weeks for asking about a home birth! Which she went on to have anyways with no complications!

I think the docs are onto a good idea. It's easy for people to make decisions when there is no obvious consequence (until your child becomes ill). But the unseen risk to the other children in the waiting room, pregnant moms, and both employees and patients who may have impaired immune systems is very real. It's your right not to vaccinate your child. It's also your responsibility to accept the consequences.

Good practice to get those parents who refuse to vaccinate their children to sign a waiver understanding the risks that will be posed on their children and the children they come in contact with. That being said, I know if my children get fatally sick due to some other parents misconceptions or negligence, I will sue them for everything they have or will ever venture to have. Good to get things in writing, always! As for firing the parents, good for them. I don't want my children exposed to fatal illnesses because of someone elses negligence!

Doctors have every right to refuse to treat unvaccinated patients, children or adults. Likewise, schools not only have a right but a positive duty to the other students, teachers, and staff to refuse enrollemtn to any unvaccinated child. Period. No excuses.

@Delores - doctors can and do fire patients. I am a pediatrician and I don't dismiss patients for immunizations because, like the doc in the article, I can often convince the parents to get some/most of them and because I still feel the child needs care - however, I have certainly "fired" patients for non-compliance (not holding up their end of the treatment plan) and for failure to keep appts. I am not your employee, I am a professional who has spent years training to utilize that knowledge to preserve the health and wellbeing of my patients. While I respect the rights of parents to make decisions for their child, I also understand the child is a helpless party to the outcomes of those decisions. I currently take care of 2 children who have suffered devastating effects from vaccine preventable illness whose parents chose not to vaccinate. Interestingly, I have NEVER had, in 18 years, a child who has had even remotely similar or detrimental effects from the vaccines themselves. And for those who are worried about additives - stop talking about "mercury" because it isn't in the routine vaccines and hasn't been for years! It's also the wrong 'type' of mercury and causes no harm but we won't get too technical here. Also almost all vaccines now ARE single dose, which does indeed cost more - so don't gripe about the cost of medical care then. And the doc is correct that most vaccines net a doc $10 or less above the cost of the medicine and for that $10 we have to train staff, buy the needles/syringes, keep detailed legal records, check lots, have commercial refrigerators/freezers, have a back up plan and carry insurance in case of power failure. While the waiting room is important many doctors 'discharge' patients who don't vaccinate because they see vaccination as SO integral to good medical care that if you can't agree on that, everything else is a wash. The doctor/patient relationship is already broken.