Ethical Issues In Health And Social Care Case Study Essay

Mini case #7, Spotlight on PODs

There are many ethical problems, with the description of the Westwood Imaging Centers in the case study. The first problem with the physicians prescribing the particular studies because they will profit from the studies. Are the studies ordered for diagnostic purposes or because there is financial benefit to the ordering physician?. I would argue that will most physicians are ethical, but it the threshold for ordering a study maybe different when there is a financial interest. The second issue is that studies have found that physician in partnerships of this type may over utilize the services. "Physicians’ ownership interests in facilities to which they refer patients constitute a conflict of interest. Their secondary interest (i.e., increased

For many years physician have been well aware of the legal prohibition, under Stark, for the ownership of imaging facilities. These do constitute a conflict of interest , they fall outside the safe harbor riles, and are subject to federal prosecution. In the 1990’s many physician divested from such partnerships. The ethical issue here is on the physicians side. They all know implicitly this a borderline type of business arrangement. I think any physician who involve themselves in such a business arrangement has ethical issue, and maybe the type of physician who would over utilize services. Obviously Westwood has no ethical stake in this scenario as they are business and not specifically interested in patient welfare or costs. The other ethical issue that I see, is that have the physicians reviewed the quality of the Westwood equipment, the quality of the staff including the Radiologists interpreting the studies. Are these radiologist sub specialty trained? Do they conference difficult cases.? This is also an ethical