The Importance Of Non Compliance In Healthcare

Studies have shown that non-compliance causes 125,000 deaths annually in the US, leads to 10 to 25 percent of hospital and nursing home admissions, and is becoming an international epidemic (Smith, 1989). The healthcare field is very familiar with attempting to deliver ethically and medically appropriate care to patients who are either actively or passively interfering with or refusing to cooperate with their treatments or plans of care (NET, 2001). By dealing with these patients healthcare professionals are having to deal with high demands of services and the patients will only seek services on their own terms. In 2010, a new Patient Bill of Rights was created along with the Affordable Care Act, this bill was designed to give new patient protections in dealing with insurance companies, and just recently did all the protections come into full effect (ACA, 2014). The cost of noncompliance not only has medical and ethical concerns but also financial. 10% of hospital admissions due to noncompliance can cost up to $15.2 billion for 3.5 million patients (Smith, 1989).

Ethical Dilemma Patients who seek medical care have specific rights, and health professionals have specific

In addition to the code of ethics nurses have standards of nursing practice implemented to provide professional integrity of our work. The ethical standards are supported by external legal and regulatory sanctions from professional peer associations (NET, 2001). Nurses should strive to provide patients with opportunities to participate in planning care, assures that patients find the plans acceptable and supports the implementation of the plan. With regards to treating patients fairly, also including neither granting special privileges nor denied aspects of care that are routinely provided to other