Ethics Case Study: CBHX 315 Healthcare Ethics

According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, the Affordable care Act from President Obama gives consumers more options and benefits when seeking coverage from insurance company. It offers lowering cost as well as gets more access to high quality of care. This law creates Patient’s Bill of Rights that is very effective to protect consumers from any abuses or fraud from insurance company. Some preventive services are available to many Americans especially Medicare recipients at no cost. Not just that, they also receive a special offer of 50 percent discount for any well-known drugs in the market place under Medicare named “donut hole.” The Affordable Care Act helps other organizations and programs to convince healthcare providers

In the late summer of August 2005 the Gulf Coast was preparing for a hurricane that no one ever imagined would be such a detriment to the beloved town of New Orleans, LA. Hurricane Katrina was a category five hurricane, according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. On August 29, 2005 Katrina made land fall as a category three hurricane with wind speeds around one hundred and forty miles per hour. Evacuation efforts in the state of Louisiana were non-existent for many families including the local hospitals and nursing homes. The hospitals became shelters for the surrounding nursing home facilities, current patients, the staff, families of the staff, and even pets. One of the most unethical debates from this disaster occurred in a local hospital where patients were given lethal doses of drugs and euthanized by Dr. Anna Pou. The conditions at Memorial Hospital were anything but ideal, but no person is obligated to decide who survives and who perishes.

Ethics are a set of moral principles that serve as a guiding philosophy for behavior. Consequently it is not a surprise that ethical dilemmas occur daily in the health care setting. Any nurse who refuses to provide care for a patient faces an ethical dilemma (Kuhn, 2012, pp. 412-418). The reasons given for refusal range anywhere from a conflict of personal values to fear of personal risk of injury. Nurses do have the right, at times, to refuse patient care assignments. The decision to accept or reject an assignment must be based upon a judgment by the nurse of the nurse 's ability to provide competent patient care. This paper aims to show both sides of the argument when it comes to nurses refusing a patient assignment. One side believes that nurses has the right to refuse patient assignment, as they must be true to themselves if they want to perform their best on the job. On the other hand, the other side believes that it is the nurse’s responsibility to care for all patients and, therefore nurses cannot simply refuse a patient.

Grinnell Regional Medical Center (GRMC) is a rural hospital that is located in east central Iowa (Grinnell Regional Medical Center, 2014a). GRMC is the largest hospital between two of the larger cities along interstate-80 (Grinnell Regional Medical Center, 2014a). This hospital has been around since 1919 and has grown throughout the years (Grinnell Regional Medical Center, 2014a). There are approximately 400 employees, 50 physicians and advanced practice practitioners, as well as 200 volunteers that take part in making GRMC what it is today (Grinnell Regional Medical Center, 2014a). GRMC is dedicated to “Health Care for Life” (Grinnell Regional Medical Center, 2014b) by providing:

Identify and explain two ethical issues/dilemmas in healthcare as identified and discussed in the scholarly literature (ProQuest, EBSCO,

While visiting my mother in the hospital this past weekend, I was a witness to an event that was quite unsettling. A homeless gentleman, who looked to be about 35 years old, was asked to pay $150 upfront for medical services due to his lack of insurance. The man informed the medical assistant that he was homeless and did not have the funds, to which the assistant responded that no services would be rendered without pay and turned the man away. The man stated that he was experiencing continuous chest pains, which could be an early symptom of a more serious condition. However due to his lack of funds and the fact that he was uninsured he was not permitted to be seen by the doctor.

The ethical dilemma I encountered at my placement involves a male in his late-sixties, who has recently suffered a stroke. Mr. A’s situation is unique as he has been unable to speak and his cognitive abilities have declined since. The Fraser Health agency protocol is to contact the patient’s family to determine who would be the temporary substitute decision makers (“Information for temporary substitute,” 2015). The health care consent and care facility admission act describes how decisions are to be made if a patient is determined incapable (Nidus Personal Planning Resource Centre, 2012). The next steps required liaising with the home health team in the community to determine if Mr. A had ever listed any family members as his emergency contacts.

The following ethics program will highlight some key ethical issues facing the healthcare industry as a whole, as well as hospice agencies specifically. In this program, I will reference ethical principles used today as well as reference historical ethicists and philosophers that backup the items outlined in this ethics program. There are two major topics to be discussed. The first will be how to treat patients that are at the end of their life, which includes their loved ones as well. A specific issue to be addressed in terms of patient care will be the option of doctor-assisted suicide, often called euthanasia, and why hospice should not support this. The other issue is that of data security and privacy, and how all patient information should be handled in the healthcare environment.

According to Benatar, the ordinary "standard of care" against which new intercessions are tried in restorative research has not been formally characterized and is typically interpreted as meaning the "best demonstrated treatment" for any condition under scrutiny in a trial (Benatar, 2000).

Last week I had the opportunity to talk to Mr. R who was brought in to the hospital due to a workplace injury. The referral was put through by the attending physician indicating that there was concerns of substance use. I started the conversation by introducing my role as a hospital social worker and tried to build report by asking Mr. R how he was managing at the hospital. Being transparent is important and explaining the reason for the visit helps in creating trust for the therapeutic intervention. I probed Mr. R about his alcohol use and if he identified that as being an issue for him. Mr. R indicated that he has been using alcohol for over a long period and reports this as a part of his daily social life, which makes it hard for abstinence.

While private hospitals tend to be the preferred choice because they are not as limited in their budget and are known for quality service in which patients receive individual care

Although health care in the United States is considered to be one of the top ranking medical services, it is however becoming inadequate due to one fatal flaw: money (Vaughn 692). It is well known that a person admitted to the hospital, also admits their wallet, as the costs of certain procedures can be quite draining. However this is reality. There is no such thing as a health care system which “can provide maximum healthcare for everyone” (Vaughn 681). Therefore doctors must decide what is ethical and what is immoral when “costs restrict how much health care can be delivered” (Vaughn 681), to certain patients. This is the question in which Dr. Oz must ask himself as he is informed that his patient cannot afford a particular treatment; a

The public hospitals in the US are facing a financial constraint in caring for undocumented immigrants due to uncompensated care. Do hospitals have the right to limit the care they can provide to these populations? Is the hospital legally, ethically, and morally obligated to continue the care for an undocumented immigrant? These ethical questions linger in mind when confronted with a situation that our hospital suffers when a patient with illegal status has little or no hope of accessing the health care system.

Everyday, healthcare professionals are faced with ethical dilemmas in their workplace. These ethical dilemmas need to be addressed in order to provide the best care for the patient. Healthcare professionals have to weigh their own personal beliefs, professional beliefs, ethical understandings, and several other factors to decide what the best care for their patient might be. This is illustrated in Mrs. Smith’s case. Mrs. Smith is an 85 year old who has suffered from a large stroke that extends to both of her brains hemispheres which has left her unconscious. She only has some brain stem reflexes and requires a ventilator for support. She is unable to communicate how she wishes to proceed with her healthcare. Mrs. Smith’s children, Sara and Frank have different views regarding their mother’s plan of care. The decision that needs to be made is whether to prolong Mrs. Smith’s life, as Sara would like to do, or stop all treatments and care, as Frank feels his mother would want. In the healthcare field, there are situations similar to this case that happen daily where moral and ethical judgment is necessary to guide the decision that would be best for the patient. The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss, compare and contrast the personal and professional values, ethical principles, and legal issues regarding Mrs. Smith’s quality of life and further plan of care.

The general awareness among patients on their rights during a medical procedure often conflict with the morals of the healthcare industry. Many times healthcare professionals are caught between