Accessing Patient Pathology Details
Jessica Harper
Words: 741
Introduction
In Australia, medical information is generally considered confidential and safeguarded under the law. Ethics is classified as “Moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity” (Oxford Dictionaries, 2014). Decisions concerning prognosis, diagnosis and treatment are often centered on results and interpretations of laboratory tests. Permanent damage can be caused by intentionally or unintentionally breaching the Code of conduct. That is, if the principals of ethics are not applied the patient or someone else will suffer. In this particular scenario of the patient’s pathology details being accessed and revealed to the partner, the three key ethical issues that are breached are Autonomy, Non-maleficence and Beneficence.
Discussion
Regard for autonomy is one of the essential guidelines of clinical ethics. Autonomy in a medical setting is not simply allowing patients to make their own decisions. For a Medical laboratory scientist, regard for autonomy involves respecting an individual’s entitlement to self-determination (Varelius, 2006) (Linehan et al., 2002). The principle of non-maleficence simply means that one should behave in a way that does not impose evil or do harm to others (Linehan et al., 2002). This principle can be defied with or without intent. Although no harm was intended when making the decision to reveal the test results, it could lead
Confidentiality in the Healthcare arena can be simply defined as the moral and ethical duty of the Practitioner to keep all the patient’s bio-data under lock and key, and offer a disclosure of those facts that the patient is legally mandated to disclose or deems fit to enhance their positive health outcome. According to the Segen’s Medical Dictionary, “Confidentiality is the ethical principle that a physician may not reveal any information disclosed in the course of medical care, unless the patient who disclosed that information poses a threat to him, herself or others’’
Autonomy includes three primary conditions: (1) liberty (independence from controlling influences), (2) agency (capacity for intentional action), and (3) understanding (through informed consent) (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009, p. 100). According to Beauchamp & Childress (2009) to respect autonomous agents, one must acknowledge their right to hold views, to make choices, and to take actions based on their personal values and beliefs (p. 103). Respect for autonomy implies thaturges caregivers to respect theassist a patient in achieving? Heed? the autonomous choices of their patients. From there, patients can act intentionally and with full understanding when evaluating medical treatment modalities. Autonomy also includes a set of rules, one of which requires that providers honor patient decision-making rights by providing the truth, also known as veracity (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009, p. 103). In this case, several facets of the principle of respecting autonomy, specifically veracity, informed
This request from Ron rises a lot of issues related to privacy and confidentiality. The Privacy Amendment Act 2012 (SA), refers to what information is collected and how it is managed in a secure matter in a healthcare setting. Nurses have to comply with confidentiality rights to a patient. This means they cannot disclose information about patients to anyone that isn’t authorised to have that information (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2013). According to legal and ethical rights, this a very unreasonable request from Ron as it breaches rules and puts the patient’s safety at risk. Jess has acted inappropriately and could be prosecuted for her actions. Information about a patient and their healthcare needs is only available to medical
Nurses have ethical and legal obligations to protect the privacy of people requiring and receiving care. This encompasses treating as confidential information gathered for professional purposes only (Privacy Act, 1988), therefore in regards to the case study this registered nurse has failed to uphold her professionalism and failed to comply with her Code of Conduct and has accessed his medical files in order for her to gather his personal information, then proceeded to message the partner of the patient to inform her of his diagnosis therefore, breaching her duty of care to the patient – even though she is not
This edition consists of nine chapters divided into three parts, as well as an appendix of ten biomedical ethics cases. In Part I, chapter 1, entitled "Moral Norms," introduces the decision-making framework with attention to specifying and balancing principles and rules for moral deliberation and decision-making. Chapter 2, entitled "Moral Character," elaborates on moral virtues and ideals as an often-neglected area in biomedical ethics. In Part II, chapters 3 through 6 present the four basic groups of principles, and chapter 7, "Professional-Patient Relationships," examines the moral rules of veracity,
There are several ethical implications to consider in regards to a breach of confidentiality, especially when considering cases within the healthcare industry. Nathanson's article, "Bioethics on NBC's ER: Betraying trust or providing good care? When is it OK to break confidentiality" explores some of the more salient ramifications. One of the fundamental components of this article is a case study in which a teenager, Andrea, has developed a form of cancer related to sexual activity and a medical professional, Nurse Hathaway, has learned of her condition. Professional entities such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council have strict codes about what information these practitioners can and cannot give out regarding their patients. This case study, then, alludes to the central issue at play in such an instance of a breach of confidentiality. If the nurse's true obligation is to the welfare of her patients, is it in the best interest of a patient for nurses to reveal their confidentiality to individuals and organizations that can ultimately help them, or should the nurse maintain her confidentiality agreement even if doing so will ultimately reduce the patient's chance for assistance with a medical condition?
Michael H., a 68-year-old man, was admitted for exploratory surgery of his abdomen. He is frail, and his attending physician describes him as “emotionally labile.” Marcy R. is a social worker at BFL General Hospital, who is assigned to the unit that Michael H has been admitted. After Michael’s surgery, Marcy R. was approached by Michael H.’s daughter, Ellen B. in which Ellen has told Marcy that her father’s physician had just informed her that the lab report from the exploratory surgery shows that her father has terminal cancer. Ellen said that she and the family are in shock and they have decided that they not want the hospital staff to tell her father about the terminal nature of his cancer once he recovers from anesthesia. In this essay, I will discuss the ethical dilemma of “to tell Michael or not to tell him he has terminal cancer. He has the right to confidentiality by not withholding information from him when he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, informed consent, and self-determination.
Yeo (2010) point out that the possibility to retain some information from patients has been ordered for long in Australian law, as in other countries for the benefit of the patient. This has now been combined with the greater autonomy acknowledged to the patient in many jurisdictions. Although a clinical approach reveals that loyalty should guide the patient-physician relationship, there are still some situations in which information consent and truth telling may be controversial: in some circumstances, the physician should or may not tell the truth. The case at hand poses a dilemma regarding the right to know (Cherry & Jacob 2008).
I agree with you that there was a conflict of interest which caused Dr. Wilson to continue with the testing even though a participant died from complications. Based on your explanations, I agree that sanctity of human life should outweigh the other principles. Plus, ethics demands that we never allow scientific examination to undermine the interests and inherent value of the distinctive human being who unselfishly enroll in such research.
Breaches in confidentiality can have a harmful impact on information causing serious implications in potential patient outcomes. It is the duty of a cancer registry professional to keep patients information private and used for only the means it is intended. Patients have the right to privacy and their medical record should not be shared without the consent of the patient. The question formed for research involves the role of a Health Information Management (HIM) practitioner in regards to confidentiality within the code of ethics of cancer registries. Protected Health Information (PHI) is personal information in a patient’s chart that is private and not to be shared without consent from that patient. “Under HIPAA, Protected Health Information
This advocates for the use of broad or blanket consent. “This empowers researchers or keepers of the data or tissues to use the material in any way they see fit with no conditions applied” (Bahadur 2004). The only course of action patients have, to obtain any monetary compensation is to sue on the grounds of lack of informed consent. This is due to researchers arguing that they are not capable of exploiting the patient since experimentation on an extracted cell does not harm or alter the health of the patient. This is evident in both Lacks’ and Moore’s cases, where both individual received “recognition” for their contribution and not fiscal compensation.
For those who chose to keep the information confidential I find this to be a selfish decision. However, as a healthcare professional it is important to avoid judging the patient. I must provide respect and support. Education is a
Consent is a cornerstone of human research ethics and in doctor-patient relationships. The need to obtain a patient’s full consent prior to participating in a clinical trial of investigational products is increasingly heralded as an ethical panacea counteracting the potential danger of paternalistic and autocratic practices (Corrigan 2003).
In medicine one of the things every patient is entitled to, no matter what, is their privacy. Since ancient times the privacy between a doctor and a patient has been somewhat of sacred thing. The patient has the right to release their health information to whomever they please. Even for doctors to access a patient’s medical history there has to be consent from the patient. In Mair’s article she reports about the case PD v Harvey in which PD upon asking for her future husband’s (FH) HIV test results was denied access because of lack of consent from FH. FH because of his right to confidentiality, despite having the disease, was able to lie and forge a pathology report which reported his HIV status as negative and in turn PD was lead to believe that FH actually received a negative result. If PD had been allowed the right to view the positive result or maybe even if the doctors would have taken into consideration her well-being PD could have avoided being infected (2009). Before testing a patient for HIV/AIDS a doctor should consult the patient in this consultation the patient should be educated about the disease, the testing process, and actions to be taken upon a positive result, including disclosure to sexual
The elements of the principles of confidentiality can be broken down into four separate categories: (1) Information provided by the patient is kept confidential unless consent from the patient has otherwise been given—unless it has direct legal implications or endangers the general public. (2) Informed Consent: is given freely, because the correct information has been supplied and the patient has sufficient information on the impacts involved. Information is otherwise given out on a need to know basis. (3) Duty of Care: Information is given out in order to protect the safety and health of others and the patient. Legal and general public health fall under this category. (4) Documenting Decisions: Consultations and actions that lead to