Memorial Hospital Ethical Dilemmas

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States of America. At least 1,245 people in the hurricane and subsequent flooding. In reading the excerpt from Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink, there are certain ethical and legal issues that arise and ones that holds all those medical and health professionals accountable for their actions. Dr. Ana Pou was one of the head doctors who took a leadership role at Memorial Hospital after the backup generators had failed and the rescue teams were few and far between. A team of medical personnel which included Dr. Pou had categorized the remaining patients into an evacuating category. They felt that the most sick patients would be evacuated last because of available resources and essentially decided who would live and who would die. Dr. Pou denies her actions and states that she did what she felt was the right thing to do? But as Sherri Finks poses the question in her article “where is the line between comfort care and mercy killings”.

A medical office administrative assistance must know the importance of proper medical documentation,the legal aspects of documentation and the various medical laws, regulations, and acts; understand language and other communication barriers, proper billing and reimbursement procedures, workplace conflict and diversity; and know how to properly maintain patient ledger cards. Accurate medical documentation ensures the patient receives the proper treatment and aides in validating medical necessity. This documentation is not only critical to the patient but the facility as well because it ensures proper codes are assigned, clean claims are submitted, and allows the reimbursement process runs smoothly. Medical office administrative assistants must understand the imporatance in protecting patient privacy because they have an ethical and legal

Natural disasters may lead to many ethical challenges that are different from normal medical practices. Disasters can vary when comparing to their time, place and extent. Therefore, ethical questions may not always have such simple solutions. Ethical values and principles in every aspect of health-care are very important. Reviewing legal and organizational regulations, developing health-care related guidelines, and disaster recovery plans, establishing on-call committees as well as an adequate in-service training of health-care workers for ethical capability are of the most important of steps. It is only by making efforts before disasters, that ethical challenges can be minimized in disaster responses.

the hurricane and to the lack of transportation. Healthcare system is an institution that delivers health care to the populations in need of medical care. The healthcare’s personnel are well trained and have dedicated their lives in providing health care to everyone who enter the institution. They are engaged to provide care to each person regardless of their disease, age, sex, social class or the stage of their illness, even if they are constrained by the careful use of the resources available. But sometimes, in extreme emergencies (wars, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods) where there are not enough medications, medical supplies or even limited resources for evacuation, some patients have to die, while others will get the care they need to live. That’s exactly what happened in 2005, at New Orleans’ Memorial Hospital after the passage of Hurricane Katrina. “After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Doctors made ad hoc decisions about which group of patients to evacuate from hospitals when floodwaters rose, the power failed and the heat climbed” (Fink, 1). The next lines will focus on some bioethical principles implicated, the advantages and disadvantages of using a utilitarian theory, the most moral theory, and whether the clinicians profiled achieved an ethical outcome in the case of Memorial Hospital.

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

“Deadly Choices at Memorial” forces many realities and problems for us to confront. The article forces us to make difficult decisions in a short amount of time in extreme, critical situations. Katrina put doctors and nurses into difficult situations on what to do with patients during the evacuation of the powerless hospital. They first had to rank the condition of the patients on who can be evacuated and who cannot be evacuated. It also brings about the question, how is it decided? Deichmann met with many of the roughly two dozen

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.

Instead of numbering patients from 1-3 and leaving #3s (DNR patients) to die, health care providers could have done same thing as the other hospital in New York. Just because these patients had DNR does not mean the health professionals take away the patients’ autonomy and hasten their death. If they had not numbered the patients and had evacuated all patients equally regardless of their health conditions then some of them may have survived. The medical professionals take a Hippocratic oath to do no harm do the patients, yet some of them at Memorial Hospital gave extra morphine and sedative to the patients. Where was non-maleficence? I mean how is someone destined

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:

At USA Community Hospital we pride ourselves with giving our patients quality health care with the very best service available. Our aim at this hospital is to have high ethical standards and the conduct of our professional staff to reflect those standards. The recent claims at this hospital of patients with HIV/AIDS being denied service will be investigated and action will be taken if needed to remedy any deviating of our ethical standards at this hospital.

In the Healthcare field there are ethical issues that arise daily. From balancing care quality to determining end of life issues, healthcare professionals are constantly trying to find a place of balance. Healthcare professionals do not have an easy job, they face challenging decisions every single day determining what is best for the patient and the organization. When an ethical dilemma arises within a healthcare organization, ethical decision making can help make an onerous decision easier.

A physician has the responsibility to determine the legitimacy of all work injuries and to report its finding accurately. If a physician prepares a report with the intent to use it in support of a fraudulent claim and knowingly submitted for payment under an insurance contract, the physician may be subject to fines or imprisonment and risks the possibility of having his or her medical license revoked. Presenting a claim for an item or services based on a code known to result in greater payment or submit a claim for services not medically needed is a violation of the false claim act.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital has been considered the top medical center in the United States for over 21 years, however, it has had its fair share of unethical treatments and trials along the way to finding great success. Each study, whether ethical or unethical, concluded in the answers that needed to be found to help solve many epidemics. For example, Henrietta Lacks’s cells were taken in hopes to find a cure for cancer. In the end her cells have contributed to solving many questions concerning the human body and took part in the creation of the polio vaccine that saved millions of lives. Fortunately, the Johns Hopkins Hospital now tries their ultimate best to provide the finest patient care providing consent forms with complete descriptions before any type of operation or research is taken place.

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.

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.