Legal & Ethical Issues Faced by Health Care Professionals

Legal & Ethical Issues Faced By Health Care Professionals

The very environment in which health care professionals have to practice is a highly complex one, filled with standards of practice and legal regulations. On top of that, there are some agonizing friends and family members of the patient who keep on intimidating the healthcare experts who are always passing through the borderline dilemma of what is right and what is wrong. Performing an abortion, for example, is legal in many countries. But there exists an ethical perspective about killing the unborn child. Another catch-22 situation arises when the patient reaches such a stage wherein it only seems humane to turn off the life support machines for allowing natural death to occur. Today, we shall talk about some such issues faced by the healthcare experts.

• Confidentiality – Releasing information pertaining to a patient can bring along with substantial damage to his social position. The HIPAA Act lists down specific laws which regulate the release of information about the patient which might in some cases be treated as confidential in nature. The laws clearly set out the instances when such information can be released. It also determines who can be at the receiving end of such classified information. Insurance companies do not have open access to all the aspects of the medical record of a patient. However, the health care professional might be required to break the confidentiality if there exist, chances of risk to a third party.
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• Malpractice – A lawsuit might be filed against the health care practitioner on the occurrence of any injury related to surgery, medical products, defective equipment’s used and callousness on the part of medical authorities which caused comprehensive damage to the patient. For steering clear from the same, medical practitioners take resort to defensive medicine, which can take the form of ordering a test beforehand so that the patient cannot hint at foul play.
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• Relationships – Getting into relationships with patients whether platonic or sexual is strictly prohibited under both nursing and medical code of ethics. Engaging in the same can lead to expulsion from the profession or even loss of license to practice. An ethical practitioner needs to stay abreast of getting entangled in a sexual relationship since it is considered to be an ultimate abuse of power over the vulnerable and dependant patients.
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• Consent – Prior to starting with a certain treatment, either the patient or his family needs to be informed about its pros and cons. performing a surgery without educating the patient party about the same can be considered as an assault and might bring along criminal charge on the health care practitioner.
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• Establishment Of Balance – Health administrators often have to take decisions which have a significant impact both on the quality of healthcare delivered and their medicinal organization. In such cases, it might become exceptionally tasking to strike the right chord of harmony between the two variables. For example, administrators find it extremely cumbersome to make the final choice between decreasing nurse-to-patient ratios by hiring more staff and purchasing state-of-art equipment’s when running on a limited budget.

Instances of healthcare frauds are becoming rampant with every passing day. But there also exist cases when the physicians are wrongly framed for something they did not commit intentionally. In such cases, they can seek out the help of experienced attorneys at Oberheiden & McMurrey, LLP.