Nurses have many duties assigned outside of routine patient care. The heart of nursing care is ensuring patient safety. An ethical dilemma exists when there may or may not be violations of law by other health care professionals. The balance between protecting patients and not making capricious allegations against others can be a delicate tightrope. Proceeding through prescribed channels in reporting possible infractions requires faith the truth will be revealed and proper actions taken. However, in the case of the nurses in Winkler County, Texas, the nurses’ faith was misplaced. Although the nurses, Mitchell and Galle, filed nine claims for relief, three of them are particularly relevant Violation of 42 USC § 1985 concerns conspiracy …show more content…
By terminating the employment of nurses Mitchell and Galle, Winkler County and the Winkler County Memorial Hospital retaliated against them for making reports to the Texas Medical Board. Another claim for relief, tortuous interference with business, concerns the intentional act of the physician’s report to the sheriff with the knowledge that it might interfere with their contracted employment with the hospital. Actual damages and losses resulted when the nurses lost their jobs. The hospital, Winkler County Memorial Hospital, was included in the lawsuit due to their complicity in the actions leading to the termination of the nurses. They could have limited liability at several different junctures. Better background checks could have prevented hiring people with questionable backgrounds such as the hospital administrator and the doctor. The fraternization between the administrator, physician and sheriff created a “good old boy” network that is hard to infiltrate particularly in small towns. Secondly, a full investigation of the doctor when he was first reported to the hospital council should have been performed and official action taken. Instituting new bylaws at the hospital prevented reporting doctors without the administrator’s permission ensuring all infractions would be kept and dealt with at the local level creating a protective umbrella over illegal or questionable activities. The hospital also needed a policy against outside employment creating a conflict of interest so selling the supplements would not have been an issue and patients would not be subjected to unauthorized
FACTS: Dr. Robert Lee Berry (Defendant) was a practicing anesthesiologist, who practiced with Dr William Preau and Dr. Mark Dennis. He was also shareholder in Lakeview Anesthesia Associates, LAA (defendant). Berry also had staff privileges at Lakeview Medical Center (LMC) (Defendant). In Nov 2000, Lakeview (Defendant) investigated Dr. Robert Berry after nurses concern. In March 2001, Berry was found groggy, unfit to work and sleeping in a chair, Based on this incident and suspicions that Barry was stealing Demerol from the hospital, he was terminated from LAA and Lakeview and his LMC staff privileges were withdrawn. Afterward, Berry applied for job as anaestheologist in Kadlec Medical Center (plaintiff). Before employing Kadlec, the facility sent a letter to Lakeview requesting recommendations and included a questionnaire with specific questions to be answered.
Issue: The appellants are claiming that the court erred in determining that the Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act (MLIA) was not applicable in their claims. Mainly on errors and omissions of medical staff as well as asserted administrative negligence of the hospital that actually occurred before the defendant was admitted at the facility. The appellees’ motion relied on Rose v Garland County Hospital. (Las Colinas Medical Centre)
In the case of Michael T. Vandall, M.D., Plaintiff and Appellant v. Trinity Hospitals, a corporation, and Margaret C. Nordell, M.D., the issue is about retaliatory discharge. It deals with problems with Trinity Hospital in North Dakota, Dr. Margaret Nordell and Dr. Michael Vandall, both physicians working in the OB-GYN department.
Nurses are required to protect and support their patients if they are to be an efficient patient advocate. Ethically questionable situations are quite common for nurses that conflict with their professionals and personal morals. At times, the patient necessitates the nurse to speak out for them demonstrating
In the summer of 2003, Gary Shephard learned that he needed to have surgery on his left knee. In accordance with the requirements of his insurance plan, Mr. Shephard obtained prior approval for the surgery from Blue Cross/Blue Shield and made plans to have the surgery on or about August 5, 2003. On August 1, 2003, a few days before his scheduled surgery, Mr. Shephard was laid off due to lack of work. (Shephard v. O'Quinn Case No. 3:05-CV-79, 2013) Defendant John O'Quinn, Gary Shephard’s boss, told him that the layoff would be temporary and that his insurance coverage was paid for one month after his layoff. Therefore, Mr. O'Quinn assured Mr. Shephard that his health insurance would still be effective the following week when he had knee surgery.
Nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas on a daily basis, each situation being unique and requiring the nurse to set aside their own values and beliefs in order to properly care for their patients. Situations requiring nurses to make an ethical decision are diverse and dynamic; the values set out by the College of Nurses of Ontario code of ethics remains the same. Therefore, all decision based on these vales regardless of the setting and circumstances ensure consistent solutions. The scenario involves a woman who was admitted to the NICU due to complications during her sixth month of pregnancy. The patient indicated that no extraordinary measures should be made to save her baby; she became further detached when the baby developed a bleed that resulted in some permanent brain damage. The ethical dilemma arose when the mother decided to put the baby up for adoption, stating she did not have time to take care of a special needs child. This paper attempts to explain the ethical values implicated in the scenario detailed below, in which the nurse cares for both mother and baby.
Fact of the case: In 1981, officials at a hospital, including executive director Dr. Dennis O’Connor, suspected improprieties in Dr.ortegas management of a residency program. The official conducted an investigation of Dr.Ortega, which included multiple searches of his office and seizure of a number of items. The items were later used in proceedings before the California state personnel board to impeach the credibility of witnesses that testified for on Dr.Ortegas behalf. The judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded.
Ohio Dep’t of Rehabilitation & Correction are the poor-quality patient care that Tomcik received and Tomcik’s health being at risk. Once engaged in a doctor-patient relationship, physicians are obligated to provide the best possible care for the patient by utilizing their skills and knowledge as expected from a competent physician under the same or similar conditions (“What Is a Doctor’s Duty of Care?” n.d.). However, in Tomcik’s situation, Dr. Evans did not deliver high-quality care, for he administered a perfunctory breast examination and thus did not follow standard protocols. There is evidence of indifference conveyed by Dr. Evans, and the lack of proper care towards Tomcik is an issue that can be scrutinized and judged appropriately. Additionally, Tomcik’s health was at risk due to the failure of a proper physical evaluation and the incredibly long delay in diagnosis and treatment. The negligence from Dr. Evans, along with the lack of medical attention sought out by Tomcik after she had first discovered the lump in her breast, may contribute to Tomcik’s life being in danger as well as the emotional anguish she may have felt during that time period. Overall, the incident of Tomcik’s expectations from the original physician and other employees at the institution not being met is an ethical issue that should be dealt with
Giving a shot to a patient that was ordered by the physician is perfectly with-in the training of a medical assistant. Now let us say that as the medical assistant as she was giving the shot has patient pass out. The medical assistant had asked the patient if they have a history of passing out with shots and if the patient is feeling all right. The medical assistant continues with asking the patient to please sit down so they can give the shot. The patient insists that they need to stand and tells the medical assistant to give it anyway. The medical assistant proceeds to give the shot and the patient passes out on the fall down they hit their head on the counter. Now the patient is suing the practice naming both the provider and the medical assistant in the
If the organizations recruiting and hiring practices are careless, a hospital or health care organization can face unwelcome consequences. Negligent hiring claim that results from one bad hire could engulf an entire company or hospital in a lawsuit, whi...
Board of Nurse Examiners because the professional nurse must understand that her responsibility is first to the patient and not to the facility she works for. The case Lunsford v. Board of Nurse Examiners is a tragic story of a man dying because both the nurse and the doctor turned a patient away and advised the patient to travel by car to a hospital 24 miles away. The patient came in with chest pain that radiated to the shoulder. The nurse did not take the patients vitals, nor did she do a full assessment on the patient. The nurse’s responsibility is to the patient and not to the facility; when the hospital is full and a patient comes in with chest pain, it is the responsibility of the nurse to assess him and advocate for the patients rights. Thus, when a doctor puts in orders that the nurse does not agree with, it is the nurses right to say no. The nurse saw that the patient clearly had the signs and symptoms of a Myocardial Infarction, but the doctor did not admit the patient. Rather, the doctor sent him to a different hospital, and the nurse did not advocate for the rights or this patient. The patient was advised to drive to a different hospital, but the patient did not make it to the hospital. The patient died on the way to the hospital (Texas Board of Nursing,
As Professor Lori McElroy MS, RN, CNE enforces: “Drug therapy should provide maximal benefit with minimal harm.” But aside from pharmacological reasons, I also believe this statement defines an ethical professional nurse as a whole, one who is committed to providing high-quality and safe patient care based on their practice on professional standards of ethical conduct as well as professional values. According to Taylor, Lillis & Lynn (2015) and Baldwin (2016), these values include:
Acute Hemodialysis Nurses and Advanced Practitioners with the Long Term Acute Care Facility (LTACH), are often faced with legal-ethical situations that require informed healthcare decisions. Patients within these facilities are often severely sick, non-verbal, non-responsive, and unstable, which places decision making on the next of kin/patient's family. Invasive procedures, such as dialysis are often ordered despite the hemodynamic stability of the patient. Families and loved ones who consent the patient for hemodialysis, typically for preservation of life. Hemodialysis can produce excessive stress on the body when combined with issues such as low blood pressure, elevated temperature, cramping, increased
When Mrs. Bennett was admitted to hospital, it was clear that extra help would be needed to care for her once she was discharged. Since the nursing staff had problems answering all of the questions Mrs. Bennett’s children had, the siblings decided that one of them should become the disseminator of information. This was agreed to be Maureen as she lived the closest to their mother. This allowed all of the siblings to discuss their thoughts and concerns, then have Maureen bring them to the health care staff and relay the information back to her siblings. Creating process that ensures that the health care professionals gain all of the information they need and all of the siblings gets their questions answered without overwhelming the staff. Mrs.
Nurses; the largest division of employees within the healthcare field (Carlson, 2017), driven to provide patient care entered on advocacy, and safety. According to the American Nurses Association (ANA) (2016), for the past fifteen years, nurses have been voted the most trusted, ethical, and honest profession (n.p.). Nurses have proven over the decades they are not afraid to meet adversity head on when it comes to the protection of their patients; but what happens when the nurse must face their own organization while advocating for their patient?