Nelson's Argument Analysis

This research paper is being submitted on December 8, 2011, for Mara Pehkonen’s M230 Medical Law and Ethics Course.

As healthcare cost, rapidly increase, healthcare professionals are finding innovative ways to contain cost. Occasionally, the healthcare organization may find themselves entombed in an ethical decision and find it difficult to take the appropriate action. In this paper, I will analyze the case study of Dr. S. and Dr. V.; and deliberate how the actions of Dr. S. and Dr. V. violated the Stark Law.

This paper will breakdown the difference between clinical and institutional ethics. How this can cause conflict between healthcare and society. Thus, providing an example of how healthcare professionals can be conflicted when trying to provide the best quality care or a compassionate treatment outcome.

Leaders in healthcare organizations are often faced with a variety of ethical issues. Ethical considerations will be discussed from a leadership perspective. The ethical considerations related to this case are the responsibility to patients, responsibility to employees, and responsibility to the organization. Responsibilities to patients includes providing quality care that meets established standards, ensuring there are mechanisms in place to monitor and evaluate the performance of healthcare personnel, hiring and retaining competent professional staff that meet licensing and accreditation standards, and consistently reviewing, researching, and implementing evidence-based practices. This case fails to demonstrate ethical conduct in terms of responsibilities to patients specifically in regard to staffing, which, in turn affects quality of care. Responsibilities to employees include providing an adequate and safe work environment, ensuring that employees are equipped with equipment, facilities, and sufficient staff to perform their duties within the established standards of care, promoting the appropriate use of employee’s knowledge and skills, and providing a mechanism for employees to voice ethical concerns. This case fails to meet this ethical standard as evidenced by not providing sufficient

There was a lot of literature on health care clinical ethics, considerably less literature on health care organizational and administrative ethics. Many times what is good for health care business may not be ethical, causing an "ethics gap." Ethics gaps can be identified and corrected by careful analysis of an institution's organizational culture. A true case study on how a nurse was able to change a tainted organization into a responsible one by ethics infrastructure changes. Finally, implications for health care were addressed.

When I was made aware that the Nelson textbook was required for this class I remember thinking “great, another $70 dollar textbook I’ll probably never use”. In lieu, of purchasing the textbook, I decided to rent it, and now that is a decision I am actually regretting. The Nelson textbook is unlike any text that I have purchased in the past because the information provided is indeed useful. Every chapter I read, I learn something I did not know, I get an idea, or I get a template/format I can use in the future. Never would I have thought that I would be excited about purchasing a textbook, but this one is definitely worth having in my professional collection.

1999). Dr. Walter E. Williams provided an idea that the government is denying rights, however, he refuses to discuss the idea of saving lives and health costs. A compromise should exist between rights and responsibility, but the current policy shows a more advantage situation.

While it is encouraging that the health care organization are turning their eye towards ethics, placing a clinical bioethicist and ethics committee as the ‘ethical center’ of an organization, without an overall cultural commitment to ethics within the organization, may not be effective or sustainable. The unsupported clinical bioethics will spend as much of their time managing issues related to workload, credibility and interpersonal relationship. Many clinical bioethics committee and clinical ethicists struggle to achieve a sustained and supported role within the infrastructure of the organizational in which they function. They also suggest that ethics is less visible or not acknowledged as an obvious hospital expenditure. To be sustainable and effective resources, clinical bioethicist services must receive adequate ongoing funding and support (MacRae et al., 2004). Moreover, to sustain the ethics in the clinical setting, standard quality improvement approaches can be used to make structural changes designed and improves access to ethics services. There must be educational need for clinical bioethics services to ensure that local clinical staff are up to date on the content and practices implication, potential harmful and unnecessary at the clinical setting. These will help them become more familiar and interested to practices ethic at

Controversial topics exist in nearly every industry, but perhaps none more dramatic and differentiated than those issues in the Healthcare industry. Legal and ethical dilemmas are constantly present within the Healthcare industry, so it is important to understand the governing laws and that there is an understandable diversity of opinions on these sensitive topics, which can lead to differing opinions about the “right” thing to do in a particular situation (Harris, 2008). One such topic is that of a patient’s right to refuse treatment. The right to refuse medical treatment in the United States of America is typically traced back to the judicial opinions of court cases: Union Pacific Railway Co. v. Botsford, 141 U.S. 250, 251 (1891), which held that all individual’s had the right to possession and control of his person, free from all restraint or interference of others, unless by clear and unquestionable authority of law, and Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital, 105 N.E. 92, 93 (N.Y. 1914), which went a step further and stated that a surgeon who performs an operation without patient’s consent commits an assault, for which they are liable in damages (Standler, 2012). There are numerous court cases and various opinions on the topic of a patient’s right to refuse medical treatment, and this type of constant criticism leads to changes in law, the healthcare industry temperament, physician behavior, and patient treatment. Through legal action there has been a precedence

Patients are now enabled to make autonomous decisions about their own healthcare or their minor child’s healthcare, sharing the decision-making responsibility with doctors. Consequently, practitioners face challenges of how to respond to dilemmas concerning their best medical advice and patients’ religious or cultural concerns. In other cases, a doctor's conscience or beliefs can influence him to refuse to perform a service or procedure despite the patient's wishes. Many believe that physicians who refuse to comply with legally-accepted medical treatments are “not qualified to fulfill the role of a medical professional” and should be asked to “find a more suitable profession or medical specialty with no threat of conscience dilemmas”. Mississippi

Professionalism plays a big part in our lives as health care professionals. It governs the correct ways in which to practice ethically. It also features in all three articles.

The course Health Care Ethics was a rather revealing study that highlighted many actions in the provision of health care which would have otherwise gone unattended to. The course has helped prepare me and deepened my understanding of ethical issues and their relevance in my job as a future healthcare administrator. It has been a great experience going through the course as it has greatly impacted my understanding and outlook in the healthcare industry.

“MEDICAL ETHICs as a branch of general ethics must rest on the basis of religion and morality They comprise not only the duties but also the rights of a physician “ (American Medical Association, & New York Academy of Medicine 1848, page 5)

The health care system consists of broad spectrums which construct opportunities to provide quality care to their clients. These opportunities are influenced by society and technology consisted demands for streamline processes in health care. Those streamline processes focus on the review of professional code of conduct subjected to an overall mandate of regulations. In particular, regulations pertaining to health care ethics. For this purpose, health care ethics involve principles such as: ethics of distribution, autonomy and informed consent, beneficence and non-maleficence, confidentiality and truthfulness. Therefore addressing these topics in regards to professional

Professionals in every field are always confronted with some kind of ethical issues. It has however been noted that these ethical issues become high in magnitude and extent when public officials are involved. Due to the involvement of human life, an industry like healthcare holds ethics in highest regard. Even though these healthcare practitioners are highly trained to deal with issues of these kinds, their decisions can sometimes have a lasting impact on their professional and personal lives (Edwards 2009).