Health care providers are fallible and will make mistakes. Unfortunately, these errors can sometimes have dire consequences for patients, and the providers, as well as the organizations, may be held liable for the harm that resulted.
In this Application Assignment, you will analyze a case study of medical error for its legal and ethical implications, and propose ways that a health care administrator might help prevent this kind of error from happening.
The Application Assignment:
With these thoughts in mind, write a 3-page paper in which you address the following questions:
Summarize the legal aspects of this case. Identify the laws that were, or may have been, broken. Who was, or may have been, liable?
Did the provider fail in any way to adhere to ethical standards? How might this have impacted the patient outcome?
If noted in the scenario, how did the provider interact with the patient or family after the error came to light?
Discuss the pros and cons of having the provider disclose and apologize for the error to the patient or family soon after the occurrence.
What are the legal and ethical implications of this approach? In general, how might this approach impact the physicians, nurses, technicians, or others who may have contributed to a medical error that harmed a patient?
In what ways can health care administrators help prevent the kind of error described in the scenario from happening in the first place? How can they assist the providers and organization after such an error occurs?