Health care organizations must make it imperative that all administrators, managers, leaders, physicians, nurses, and all other employees act at all times in an honest and ethical manner in connection with their services to patients. The principles of integrity and accountability are extremely vital in a health care organization’s success, as well as ensuring patient safety. Failure to act in an ethical manner can result in legal ramifications and negative publicity for the organization.…
Human Resources Presentation Leslie Gabor, Aisha Little, Anne Parker, and Cindy Wright HCS/430 Legal Issues in Health Care: Regulation and Compliance September 15th, 2014 William Bross Introduction • State and Federal Statutory and Regulatory Enactments. • Current Principles of Patient Consent. • Current State and Future Trends of Physicians’ Rights and Responsibilities. • Current Components and Implications of HIPAA. • Current and Future Trends for Statutory, Regulatory, and Common Law Requirements of Confidentiality.…
This article presents a case study highlighting the conflict between an individual’s right to privacy and the rights of patients and staff to know when a professional standard has been breached. The process by which the administrator determines a course of action is reviewed in the context of workplace realities through an ethical analysis. The growth of information systems and the increased involvement of third parties in decision-making have created new issues regarding confidentiality and the release of sensitive information for health care personnel who are in a position of…
A guiding principle followed by most administrators and health care providers is the concept that ethical principles must match the values of the whole organization. This belief should serve as a continuous teaching to all staff so that the organization’s goals may be uniformly achieved. Healthcare administrators must be fully competent in adhering to the ethical principles of patient and employee confidentiality in order to promote trust, respect, and the protection of individual’s rights concerning health information. This is one of the main objectives of the Privacy Rule or HIPAA, and a breach to…
I found Sean Higgins article titled, “States rethink occupational license rules” compelling, considering that licensing rules prove to be more harmful than beneficial economically. From a statistical standpoint, it would appear that no one ultimately benefits. By increasing the use of occupational licensing, consumers are denied the full range of potential services on the market and it creates friction for those who wish to enter it. However, one item I wished Higgins addressed more in-depth concerned why we still have licensing regulations if they’ve continually been proven to be harmful. I concede he stated that most justify it as a public safety precaution, which makes sense for certain fields. My concern, however, is why we have licensing…
Healthcare ethics involves making well researched and considerate decisions about medical treatments, while taking into consideration a patient’s beliefs and wishes regarding all aspects of their health. The healthcare industry, above any other, has a high regard for the issues surrounding the welfare of their patients. This power over a patient’s wellbeing creates a mandatory need for all healthcare organizations to develop an ethics committee. The committee’s goal is to establish a written code of ethics that details the policies and procedures that determine proper conduct for all employees.…
This article highlights the need for Surgical Technologists to understand the ethical and legal issues in their day to day activities. Professionalism when working in any area of a surgery department must be maintained no matter what the situation. Ethical and legal issues arise daily, so it is necessary to understand and apply certain concepts in order to properly evaluate a given situation and make appropriate decisions leading to performance that will render the highest quality patient care possible. Professional behavior in this regard is crucial for any health care worker.…
Every health care professional faces ethical dilemmas from time to time. There are fundamental principles of ethics when we talk about ethical issues in health care: confidentiality that you need to respect for individual privacy.…
Health care practitioners are faced with ethical dilemmas at growing rate. For example, a nurse may violate a homeless patient’s right to receive full information regarding his or her disease prognosis. The nurse assumes since the patient is uninsured, the patient will not be able to afford medicine to cure the problem, therefore, the information of the prognosis is discarded and the patient is quickly being discharged shortly after.…
Ethics are rules of conduct and moral principles of an individual which have various origins such as family, culture, and social environment. Given the diversity of people in the healthcare profession and the importance of providing care that is ethically sound and within legal bounds, it is necessary to have standard of care guidelines that outline healthcare ethics. “The goal of health care ethics is to provide health care professionals with moral guidelines that any rational person would recognize as worthy ones to follow” (Tong, 2007, p.6).…
The issue of mandating healthcare has been a hot topic for many years in the US government. Even though there is no mention of the right to healthcare in the United States Constitution. Some speculate that it is implied under the 14th Amendment, which states in the first section that no state shall deprive any citizen of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Some argue that the government is violating the 14th Amendment by not making healthcare available to people who are under the poverty line. Some argue that healthcare is a right to citizens.…
As students works towards their Ph.D., they are often reminded of the things that are expected from them as they enter the workforce. One expectation that the future physicians in the United States of America are to know, is the Principles of Medical Ethics, a list of ethics adopted by the American Medical Association in June of 1957 and most recently revised in June 2001. In addition to the ethics adopted by the American Medical Association, an upcoming physician should also be aware of the World Medical Association Code of Medical Ethics. Combining both codes of ethics results in an honest and moral physician, whereas breaking the law results in serious consequences.…
Medical ethics spans far past providing patient care and includes every aspect of the medical profession.…
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 protects the right to privacy to all individuals medical records and health data. Title I of HIPAA (1996) protects health insurance coverage for workers and families when they change or lose their jobs, and Title II establishes national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers. This set of laws helps to prevent health care fraud…
Medicalization is the process in which non-medical issues are redefined in terms of illnesses or disorders and treated with the assistance of biomedicine. As medicalization evolves, medical intervention is used to alleviate the undesired symptoms of human life, which often leads to pharmaceutical companies developing and advertising medications to assist in treating medicalized illnesses. As a result, more and more human processes and behaviors being diagnosed as medical or pathological illnesses are being treated with medications that remove the discomforts of aging, mood fluctuation, grief and deviant behaviors; allowing one to be better than well. While many medicalized illness can be treated without pharmaceutical intervention, drug therapy…