Around the 1970s, Health Care Ethics Committees (HCECs) came to be recognized as a legal entity. HCECs primary function was to serve as an alternative dispute resolution committee in the case of disputes, particularly while dealing with the end of life decisions. The three major roles of HCECs are education, policy development and case consultation (Hoffman & Tarzian, 2005). HCECs provide education through seminars, conferences, grand rounds, etc. and this helps the hospital employees in making wise, ethical decisions. In addition, HCECs helps in the development of hospital policies. For examples: Do Not Resuscitate orders, informed consent, guardianship, surrogate decisions, advance directives, artificial nutrition, etc. Case consultation
is an actual discussion of a complicated ethical case by ethics committee as requested by the physician or other staff of the hospitals. Case consultation can be either: 1) retrospective review, where a consult seeks feedback on the decision which was already made, or 2) concurrent or prospective review, where ethics committee gets involved in an active case. Another important function of the HCECs is the organizational ethic. They deal with the evaluation of the administrative ethical issues within the organization. A healthcare administrator can consult such committee for various reasons such as 1) To balance fiscal responsibility and ethics – healthcare administrators are responsible for financial decisions of the organizations. However, they must make such decisions while keeping a balance to maintain the quality of patient care. 2) To maintain the ethical principle of patient privacy – It is a role of the healthcare administrator to ensure that the employees are following all laws and regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). However, there might be a case when patient privacy is breached to prevent harm to the patient or another person. Such situation can be tricky, and an administrator may seek the help of HCECs.
Today, there are so many legal dilemmas dominating trial for the courts to make a sound legal decision on whose right in a complicated situation. Despite the outcome of the case, the disagreement usually has a profound effect on the healthcare organization, and the industry as a whole. Many cases are arguments centered around if the issue is a legal or moral principle. Regardless what the situation maybe, the final decision is left to the courts to differentiate between the legality issues at hand opposed to justifying a case based on moral rules. According to Pozgar (2012), an ethical dilemma arises in situations where a choice must be made between unpleasant alternative. It can occur whenever a choice involves giving up something good and suffering something bad, no matter what course of action is taken (p. 367). In this paper, I will discuss cases that arose in the healthcare industry that have been tried and brought to justice by the United States court system.
Why is it so important that healthcare executives adhere to a professional code of ethics?
Slosar, J. P. (2004). Ethical decisions in health care. Health Progress. pp. 38-43. Retrieved from http://www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/article/january-february-2004/ethical-decisions-in-health-care
The twenty-first century has become a very market-driven place and health care is at its highest in demand for adjustment. In exertion to assist with this modification, the case study by Hill Physicians demonstrates an effective innovation pay-for- performance-incentive model for improved quality in health maintenance. In this subject field, Hill Physicians proves that engaging health information technology, innovative care management methods, predictive modelling, and financial incentives will provide higher quality and more efficient care. In this article, however, I will concentrate on two specific ethical issues connected to financial compensation and fairness in health maintenance. To achieve this aim, I will first discuss
There are many different thoughts and beliefs surrounding ethics. Ethic codes of conduct are in place. Ethics has always existed but has been more closely looked at over the last 40 years. There is discussion about futile care to patients in intensive care settings and do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders for surgical patients. Guidelines and regulations need to be followed and set forth.
There are questions about transplant allocation in regards to the four major ethical principles in medical ethics: beneficence, autonomy, nonmaleficence and justice. Beneficence is the “obligation of healthcare providers to help people” that are in need, autonomy is the “right of patients to make choices” in regards to their healthcare, nonmaleficence, is the “duty of the healthcare providers to do no harm”, and justice is the “concept of treating everyone in a fair manner” ("Medical Ethics & the Rationing of Health Care: Introduction", n.d., p. 1).
Thus the AMA has recently announced the implementation of the Institute for Ethics. The goal of this entity within the AMA will be to educate 10% of its member doctors (estimated to be 20,000) on hospice and palliative care. Further, they believe that providing responsible alternative treatment to ending life will all but eliminate the quest for euthanasia. This aggressive new project will be headed by Linda Emanuel, Professor of Bioethics at Harvard. The two-year pilot program is funded by a 2-million-dollar grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Ironically, this foundation is also well known for aggressive pro-abortion funding. However,...
Apart from physicians, nursing professionals act as patient advocate in supporting end-of- life decisions as they spend maximum time with patients than any other member of the healthcare team. In many health care settings, the nurse has the responsibility of asking the patient about advance directives. Since each state identifies different laws regarding advance directives, it is important that nurses be aware of the rules of these documents for the purpose of accuracy and compliance. The nurses are required to document any conversations about advance directives in the patient's medical record and keep it timely and updated. Nurses can play vital role in resolving conflicts arising from moral and ethical issues related to advance care planning
...endent judgments about their own fate. In keeping with this trend there is now a growing drive to review the current laws on euthanasia and assisted suicide.” (McCormack, 1998) Nurses are faced with various ethical dilemmas every day. If theses ethical decisions are not treated in a professional manner there can be harsh consequences for both the patient and the nurse.
Providing the steps to ethically sound excellent care, healthcare providers must acknowledge first the legal and ethical matters involved with proper investigation and then devise a plan for best possible action recognizing the rights of the patient and its benefits followed by the application of the chosen intervention with positive outcome in mind (Wells, 2007). Delivery of excellent and quality of care at a constant level (NMC, 2008) must be marked in any responsibilities and duties of the care provider to promote exceptional nursing practice. Codes of nursing ethics and legal legislation have addressed almost all the necessary actions in making decisions in consideration to the best interest of the patient. Nurses must make sure that they are all guided by the set standard to lead their action and produce desirable and ethically sound outcomes.
Tarzian, A. J., & Force, A. C. C. U. T. (2013). Health care ethics consultation: An update on core competencies and emerging standards from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities’ Core Competencies Update Task Force. The American Journal of Bioethics, 13(2),
Faith Community Hospital, an organization who's mission statement is to promote health and well-being of the people in the communities. They serve through the extent of services provided in collaboration with the partners who share the same vision and values. Though the mission statement is the model that everyone should be following, everyone does not think the same about every issue. We all may face similar situation at one point in time but the end result may be different for each individual because we all have different values and beliefs. There are many differences between ethics, laws, beliefs, and oaths that all affect the decisions from patients to staff members. Some patients refuse to take medical services and there are staff members who refuse to provide certain services due to those value lines. Some of the staff members are caring so much for the patients that they sometimes take radical positions to respond to their well-beings. In these situations medical intervention can conflict with religious beliefs or personal moral convictions. Hospital pharmacists are even taking positions which they believe to be important such as filling uninsured prescriptions by accepting payments in installments. Staff members in ICU initiated Do Not Resuscitate procedures with out written orders. Doctors are putting patients first from various interpretations. In "right to die" situations the doctors seem to be getting too involved in compassion and passions with their patients. We need to stay focused on what our jobs are and what we are promoting which is to provide healthcare and its services to members of the communities. Counselors are also treating some of their clients with no authorization of the values and beliefs they have. On the other hand, there are some staff members within the hospital who refuse to serve patients unless they have confirmed insurance coverage. If a patient is to pass away because of unauthorized decisions, this can cause a stir with the media as well as with current or future patients in the community.
Garrett, T. M., Baillie, H. W., & Garrett, R. M. (2010). Health care ethics: Principles and problems (5thed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Center for Bioethics: University of Minnesota. End of Life Care: An Ethical Overview. 2005. PDF.
The four fundamental nursing responsibilities of promoting health, preventing illness, optimizing health and alleviating the ill are represented in the code of ethics. (Arnold & Boggs, 2016) One can say that the code of ethics are rules that a nurse needs to follow in order to effectively communicate and protect the patients. The American Nurse Association provided the code of ethics to guide nurses to ensure that patient’s care, safety, rights and health are well cared for and well managed. Models like Utilitarian, deontological, and the human rights-based all contribute in answering dilemmas that can arise with a patient. Thus, explaining what some of the code of ethics are, and how the code of ethics influence our responsibilities as a nurse will impact the overall care of the