Gtr187

Dane left GA because he got a new job as the lead of The Last Ship. He's said so in several interviews, including the one below where he talked about Grey's being an ensemble that wasn't about any one actor, so it was hard to pass up the chance to be THE starring actor on a show. http://www.ew.com/article/2013/07/25/eric-dane-greys-anatomy-last-ship?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_article Chyler Leigh - rumors went around long before she left that she was unhappy with the creative direction and/or usage of Lexie, so who knows? Grey's is never short on backstage drama.

If she were illegal, that'd be more incentive to get married - she'd become a citizen by marriage. It's mostly a paperwork issue and they're both highly paid doctors. Plus if she is illegal, she had to get fake papers or she wouldn't have been able to apply for a medical license or be employed at Grey-Sloan. She would have also had a detailed background check when joining the surgical resident program. She is in a profession where her papers would be checked every time she applied for a research grant or fellowship or wanted to participate in clinical trials, etc - if her fake paperwork is able to navigate all that, marriage would be cake. Her being in WitSec is an intriguing idea but then why didn't she just say no to the proposal the first time? That's not something that would change unless she left WitSec.

Arizona legally adopted Sofia, so she has equal standing with Callie - biological doesn't automatically trump adoptive legally speaking. The big legal question here is, what's in Sofia's best interests. Sofia's age is a factor, the ability to provide a stable home, the fitness of the parents, and if the move is best for her. Given they were both fit parents with the ability to provide for Sofia, the decision really came down to if the move was a good thing for her. Courts tend to be reluctant to uproot children, especially young children, without a good reason. The outcome makes sense from the perspective of how a real court would view such a case.

Well, there's not a lot of detail that's been put out there, but we know this much: 1)Patrick is a big racing fan, and he wanted to devote more time to it. 2)His real life marriage was also having trouble. 3)He approached Shonda about a reduced schedule so he could spend more time on his marriage/racing. She agreed (that's why Derek went to DC to do the brain mapping thing). 4)At some point after the 1st agreement, Patrick came back to talk about the next season. Something happened in that discussion that really angered Shonda, so she decided to kill the character off. Stories vary (he demanded a much reduced schedule for s12, more money, creative differences, etc). We'll probably never know for sure unless she decides to go into more detail. Shonda is famous for not tolerating "diva" behavior (see: Heigl) and has made some vague comments suggesting Dempsey was turning into a diva.

They've already kinda done that to Alex with .....Lucy? (Might be different name) The blond OB GYN resident from seasons back when he was thinking of taking Arizona's old Africa job and she took it first. I'd prefer something that hasn't already happened to him. I liked Penny so l'll join you on that. Is the actress Sandra Oh? No. But she's a good actress. I feel like the reason most dislike her is the lack of chemistry between her and Sara Ramirez which is a valid complaint on the quality of the show, but not really her fault, it was a casting choice. And at that, Patrick Dempsey's exit was chaotic in a planning sense because Derek wasn’t originally intended to die last season until he pissed Shonda off. Given all the shuffling, I honestly believe that Penny being Callie's new GF was not the original plan when they cast the actress so she was hired for one type of role and ended up in one they didn't originally intend that actress for. All that said, I think we are going to see her in the finale, so hopefully we get a better goodbye scene. Re: Meredith / Riggs - it's either gonna be the awkward love triangle with Maggie, or the allegedly dead Owen sister popping up Addison style once they are established as a couple or if Grey's really hates us, both in some order.

Possibly Jo's secret is related to the death of Kyle and Stephanie's reaction? Jo seemed sad when delivering the news. Maybe a Thirteen on House type situation where Jo's got some kind of terminal condition that hasn't kicked in yet?

As I talked about in one of my other posts - doctor-patient confidentiality also applies to a potential patient. They had multiple conversations where Robbins asked her to come in and have tests and be a patient - those conversations make April a potential patient, which means the fact that April is pregnant is medical information that Robbins knows as a potential doctor and so doctor-patient confidentiality would apply starting from the first time Arizona approached April to be tested.

There's a couple of ways you could look at it - Stephanie did consult Robbins on the sonogram which would mean in theory that consult was logged in April's medical records, which would make Arizona indirectly a doctor of April and confidentiality would then apply to any future medical information Robbins learned about April. Or: Doctor patient confidentiality also applies to medically relevant communications between a doctor and a potential patient - the conversations April and Arizona had ("come in and get tests." "No!") would pretty clearly make April a potential patient.Re: Callie, Meredith/Thorpe talking, etc - as long as they don't mention the patient's name or identifying info, they can discuss details like surgical technique without breaking privilege legally. Arizona could have said to Jackson - I have a pregnant patient (or potential patient if we say Arizona wasn't April's Doctor) and it'd be legal as long as she didn't say who it was. Callie's overseas doctors were doing an experimental trial - in a trial, the patients usually give consent for their results to be shared (without identifying info) before entering the trial so those doctors are in the clear as long as they didn't say names with results. If names are shared during storytelling, then yes they could be sued if the patient found out. Yeah, IRL what Arizona did to Herman by stealing her files was about 10 different HIPAA violations and would have meant firing, loss of her license, and probably fines and jail time. Though in that case, it's not clear if Hermann ever told anyone (she did have a lot invested in Robbins as a protege) and the only other person who knew was Amelia who would be in the same kinds of trouble if anyone ever found out because she knew the records were not legally obtained and didn't report it. Then again - This is Grey's, the world of cutting LVAD wires, interns doing surgery on each other without getting fired, Bailey blatantly disregarding a parent's wishes re: Bubble Boy, etc.

Re: Bailey and Arizona - relating to doctor-patient confidentiality. The professional duty of confidentiality covers not only what patients may reveal to doctors, but also what doctors may independently conclude or form an opinion about, based on their examination or assessment of patients. Confidentiality covers all medical records (including x-rays, lab-reports, etc.) as well as communications between patient and doctor, and it generally includes communications between the patient and other professional staff working with the doctor. The duty of confidentiality continues even after patients stop seeing or being treated by their doctors. Once doctors are under a duty of confidentiality, they cannot divulge any medical information about their patients to third parties withour consent. (Source: http://healthcare.uslegal.com/doctor-patient-confidentiality). Arizona was April's doctor for the 1st pregnancy so legally speaking once it's established that she is or was her doctor, any medical information about April that Arizona learns is confidential, no matter how she got the information or if she was still treating April. So Bailey was right - it is a fireable offense, at least in the real world. On Grey's, it's just another Thursday. :)