When the Owner of a Medical Practice Dies

• Inform patients of the death. The relationship between patients and their primary care provider in a family health setting is often a close one built over many years, and informing them of the medical practice owner's death is very akin to a death in their own family. These people are often prominent members of their community, and their death will affect many. Darlene Mueller Morse in writing for the Denver Post commented on the impact of losing not one physician but two: "I also know that there were two men in my life who, using their medical training and adding in a healthy dose of humanity, made my life into something quite normal."
  
  Treat this event with the utmost care. In addition to personal issues surrounding the death, patients will have to make decisions surrounding the ongoing health care for themselves and their family. Allow them the opportunity to take their time in making this decision, and ensure them that the confidentiality of their medical records will remain intact despite the death of the medical practice owner's death.
  
  Inform other doctors working at the practice. Often the primary owner of the medical practice will not be the sole doctor on sight, and it will be their duty to take on the departed practice owner's patient load to provide interim care while they seek a new primary family doctor. If the doctors are able, and the patients agreeable, they may be absorbed into the existing doctor's (or doctors') patient files if the practice itself is to remain open as it is.
  
  Check the Will. Often owners of medical practices will provide details for how they wish their business to carry on in the event of their death. This may detail how bills are to be paid, where existing patients may go, and even who will be the new head of the practice in the event that it is intended to remain intact.