Case Scenario: ERRORS POSSIBLE IN HIV TESTS
According to an article in the Baltimore Sun on March 11, 2004, approximately 640 patients at Maryland General Hospital may have received incorrect HIV and hepatitis test results. Some patients might have been told they were HIV-negative when in fact they were positive and vice versa, and the hospital failed to notify the patients of the problem. A former hospital employee had apparently filed a complaint. State health officials discovered in January that the hospital's laboratory personnel overrode controls in the testing equipment that showed the results might be in error and then mailed them to patients anyway.
Ethical and Legal Issues
1. What ethical theories and principles were violated in this case?
2. What are the legal concerns for the hospital?