Study Document
Patient Safety Vs. Privacy Laws Term Paper
Pages:3 (1051 words)
Sources:4
Subject:Law
Topic:Privacy Laws
Document Type:Term Paper
Document:#2941180
Ethical Dilemma
The author of this report is to assess an ethical dilemma that involves a couple of important factors. The two main ethical issues are patient privacy and when the proper time to blow the whistle on a doctor truly comes, not to mention how to do it. Kendra finds out that a family member is about to get gastric bypass from a doctor that has had a staggering amount of people that have had complications or died post-surgery. She feels compelled to warn her mother even though this would be a breach of privacy laws and ethical guidelines. While privacy regulations are in place for a reason, patient safety is also a valid concern and that is clearly an issue with Dr. Russell and his practices.
Analysis
Sue's internal forces would include the fact that Dr. Russell, her boss and employer, is facing a lawsuit due to the death of a patient and it is also known that other patients have died or have complications and this is bring stress to Sue. Sue's external forces would be the current patient that is threatening to sue as it involves her employer. Kendra's internal forces are similar in that the doctor's apparent malpractice is affecting her work stability and structure and she's getting pressure from Sue to dig up records that are certainly going to implicate the doctor and/or the practices of the office. Kendra's external pressures include the fact that all but one gastric bypass patient have had complications and roughly a third of them actually died and this is going to mushroom in the form of pressure against the office and lawsuits from the patients and/or families of patients. The ultimate external pressure is that Kendra's mother is due up for a surgery from that same doctor (AMA, 2014).
One of the ethical concerns in this case is when it is acceptable to breach patient/doctor privacy and how exactly it should or should not be done. The question is extremely important in this case because there is a doctor that is ostensibly killing patients through his own malpractice or the malpractice of his staff, if not both. To be sure, the ostensible odds of Kendra's mother dying or at least having complications are 33% or nearly 100%, respectively. The American Health Information Code of Ethics would seem to stipulate that while only blowing the whistle to family members or friends would be unethical but that doing so for the health of all patients in general would absolutely be called for. However, there are legal issues here as HIPAA and other laws are potentially going to be violated as a result. However, if Kendra follows the right avenues she will be better off. For example, if Kendra told her mother to not have the surgery but didn't offer details why, that would be better but immediately going to the proper authorities and licensing boards and having all surgeries halted until an investigation could be conducted would be the best way (Medical Malpractice, 2014).
However, that is not what happened. It obviously registers with Sue that the way Kendra initially revealed this was improper but…
Sample Source(s) Used
References
AACAP. (2014, July 11). Know Your Rights: Consent and Confidentiality. Know Your
Rights: Consent and Confidentiality. Retrieved July 11, 2014, from http://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/Facts_for
_Families_Pages/Know_Your_Rights_Consent_and_Confidentiality_103.aspx
AMA. (2014, July 11). AMA's Code of Medical Ethics. AMA's Code of Medical Ethics.
Related Documents
Study Document
Patient Safety and Security Patient Information, Privacy
Patient Safety and Security Patient information, privacy and security are at the heart of providing a high level of medical services. These issues are vitally important if patient confidence is to be retained, in addition to ensuring that no potential harm comes to the patient. Hence, the information systems at any hospital should be managed in such a way as to retain the confidentiality of patient information, particularly where such information
Study Document
Privacy Rule HIPAA Ethical Health
But the failure must be corrected within 30 days from the time of notification of the violation. Criminal penalty will be imposed on a person who knowingly obtains and reveals identifiable health information and violates HIPAA Rules at a fine of $50,000 and up to 1 year imprisonment. The fine can increase to $100,000 and the imprisonment to 5 years if the violation involves false pretenses. The fine can
Study Document
Workplace Demands Influences Patient Safety PICOT Question
Workplace Demands Influences Patient Safety PICOT Question PICOT Question: How can the implementation of accurate safety standards reduce errors that hamper patients' safety in healthcare facilities in the short and long run? P -- Patients in healthcare facilities Recognition of Errors Procedural and Human Errors O -- Implementation of Safety Standards and Systems to improve Caretaker Efficiency and Patient Security different interventions take different times, but results should be seen with a year from all interventions
Study Document
Patient Privacy Protecting Patient Privacy
Only those that are supposed to have access to that information would have all of the correct keys to unlocking it. Advanced technology such as retinal scans, or fingerprint matching could be employed at the most sensitive levels. The implementation of such a system would be long and complicated. The first step would be the development and testing of the software package. The second would be training bedside personnel to
Study Document
Privacy Abuse and Protection
Privacy and Abuse Protection Efforts of Businesses Facts Many workforces in most nations all over the world are increasingly becoming global. These workforces cooperate, communicate, and link up in multinationals and global marketplaces via web-based applications across countries and territories. The phenomenon of globalization has removed quite a number of differences amongst peoples and nations both in workplaces and in other areas[footnoteRef:2]. However, some questions have been raised on the origins of
Study Document
Patient S Privacy Rights on Social Media
We Can, But Dare We?IntroductionEveryone loves to post on social media�but what happens when one posts information that violates a patient�s HIPAA rights? Consider this scenario: a healthcare provider gets on social media and posts something about a patient, not thinking about the ramifications of doing so. A day after posting on social media, the provider realizes his mistake and deletes the post. However, it was too late and a