The Erosion of Patient Confidentiality The medical Profession recognizes that patients have a number of basic rights. These include but are not limited to the following: the right to reasonable response to his or her requests and need and needs for treatment within the hospital's capacity. The right to considerate, respectful care focused on the patient's individual needs. The right of the patient to make health care decisions, including the right to refuse treatment. The right to formulate advance directives. The right to be provided with information regarding treatment that enables the patient to make treatment decisions that reflect his or her wishes. The right to be provided upon admission to a health care facility with information about the health care provider's policies regarding advance directives, patient rights, and patient complaints. The right to participate in ethical decision making that may arise in the course of treatment. The right to be notified of any medical research or educational projects that may affect the patient's care. The right to privacy and confid...
Not all cases is patient autonomy the most important thing to respect and honor. There will always be situations where Medical paternalism is justified. Justifiable paternalism in a medical perspective is prolonging patients’ lives allowing them to exercise their autonomy. Failing to respect a patient’s treatment requests or denials is a violation of the autonomy at that point in time during their illness. While the previous statement is true, the medical professional is violating a patient’s future autonomy. For this reason, medical professionals have the right to act paternalistically, therefore medical paternalism is justified by means of future autonomy and obligations to promote patient
In this context, new emphasis is being placed on the rights of patients. Recent federal legislation, for example, requires all health care facilities receiving Medicare or Medicaid monies to inform patients of their right to make medical treatment decisions. This includes the right to specify "advance directives," [1] which state what patients wish to be done in case they are no longer able to communicate adequately.
Confidentiality is a major topic within care environments. When it comes to deciding what information is shared and who it is shared amongst can be difficult. Confidential information, is information that is ‘not to be told to anyone’ (The Open University, 2015, p. 58). Information that is sensitive or not publicly known is confidential, also if information is given by a person who is in a setting where confidentially is expected then that information should remain private and not shared with others. It can be very difficult for a staff member to find the balance between knowing what information is confidential and appropriate information that needs to be shared between the staff team.
When a patient enters the hospital, he or she expects the health care professionals to treat him or her with respect and fairness. The hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare settings should deserve and be reputed with a strong set of ethical principles and respect in the face of the law. To John, a 35 year old schizophrenic who is experiencing a crisis situation, his mental health depends greatly on his health care team. He wrote an advance directive that states which medications he would prefer to receive and that he wants his parents to be involved in his care, but he currently exhibits paranoia against his parents. John’s health care team must decide on what course of action to take. The purpose of this paper is to examine the legal and ethical aspects of John’s advance directive and his recipient rights.
Patients are ultimately responsible for their own health and wellbeing and should be held responsible for the consequences of their decisions and actions. All people have the right to refuse treatment even where refusal may result in harm to themselves or in their own death and providers are legally bound to respect their decision. If patients cannot decide for themselves, but have previously decided to refuse treatment while still competent, their decision is legally binding. Where a patient's views are not known, the doctor has a responsibility to make a decision, but should consult other healthcare professionals and people close to the patient.
Ethical principles in healthcare are significant to the building blocks of mortality. The principles are beneficence, autonomy, justice, and nonmaleficence. Although these principles can be certainly followed they can also be disregarded. Beneficence is a theory that assures each procedure given is entirely beneficial to that patient to help them advance within their own good. For example, There was a young girl, the age of 17. She had been being treated at a small private practice since she was born. She was recently diagnosed with lymphoma and was only given a few more years to live. Her doctors at the private practice who had been seeing her for years were very attached to her and wanted to grant this dying girl her every wish. They promised
In the United States of American a Patient’s Bill of Right was designed in order to guarantee each patients fair healthcare treatment. In additions to this it also protects patients and healthcare workers and allows patients to safely address any issues they are experiencing with the healthcare system. The Patient’s Bill of Right also helps patients establish a strong relationship with their healthcare providers. Establishing this strong relationship helps patients understand their role in the process
Ethical issues are “moral challenges” facing the health care profession (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2012, p. 127). Ethical issues is a major concern in the healthcare field because healthcare providers observe ethical issues every day and have to make ethical decisions. Advance directives are written documents that addressed an individual’s medical care preferences. These documents usually take effect when patients no longer can make informed health care decisions for themselves. While these documents are helpful to loved ones and health care providers, there are a number of ethical considerations that can make the development and execution of advance directives difficult (Llama, 2014). This author is a geriatric nurse that recently observed an advance directive ethical issue in the clinical setting. The purpose of this paper is to outline the steps of ethical decision-making within the seven steps for the framework. This paper will also identify the facts of the case from the perspective of each person impacted by the situation and identify which ethical principles were involved in the situation.
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political, and bioethical reasoning. Inside these connections, it is the limit of a sound individual to make an educated, unpressured decision. Patient autonomy can conflict with clinician autonomy and, in such a clash of values, it is not obvious which should prevail. (Lantos, Matlock & Wendler, 2011). In order to gain informed consent, a patient
Throughout all things medical, privacy is most important. The concern here is why camera crews are allowed into a facility that is supposed to make you feel like you’re protected. A person has the right to themselves, so who determines whether or not you have that right? Just because a person is unconscious doesn’t mean their privacy should be invaded. Whether unconscious or not, consent was not formally, or previously agreed too. There are many factors at play here, but I will be touching on those a little more throughout the essay. Privacy sticks out to me in an important way, without it we all would know every little detail of everyone’s lives.
I feel that when dealing with patient communication confidentiality is the most important matter at hand. The patient has entrusted the doctor’s office to handle there help care with the utmost of care, professionalism and to keep their matters private. If a patient confidentiality was broken the entire office would be effected. Patients would no longer trust the doctor and his staff. When sending out any information you must always double check the patient name, email address/physical address, and fax number to make sure the information is being sent to the correct person.
As social media becomes an essential way to communicate, nurse must be aware of what are appropriate and illegitimate uses of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms. Nurses must use their best judgment in what they post, because they are responsible for protecting the public view of nurses, and most importantly, former and present patient confidentiality. Social media education should not start when a nurse starts their career, but while they are still in school. Richard G. Booth of Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University, London, Canada, studied the use of Twitter by nursing students. In 2011, Booth collected 498 tweets over a six day period. He created five groups and divided 189 tweets into those specific themed
Doctor patient confidentiality, is a fundamental element of the practice of medicine. Patients can expect that doctors and their support staff will hold confidential information about them in confidence, unless the release of the information is required by law or for public interest reasons. Ensuring confidentiality is retained allows doctors to examine their patients and receive all relevant information about their condition without a worry of judgement or sharing of the information.
patient’s right is protected by the law. In the healthcare system, all the rights listed on the form given by providers is protected and if violated can be punishable by fines if found guilty in a court of law. All providers must abide by the patient’s rights. A responsibility would be the
Our law enforcement officials have a duty to protect citizens as well as discourage crimes from taking place. Our health care officials also have a duty to provide the best care possible to those who need it. Often enough, there have been many cases where both parties have come in contrast with each other on different levels of professionalism. The ultimate debate arises when doctors and law enforcement take into account the respect and privacy of patients. One of the issues that will be discussed in the paper focuses on the importance of doctors having to report gunshot wounds to the police. Many issues of ethics and morality come into play when judging which party is in favor. In our opinion, we believe that physicians should report patients that come in with gunshot wounds for reasons of discouraging criminal acts, protecting our society, and preventing future violence from taking place. This paper will explore the many moral, ethical and legal responsibilities of a physician, and analyze why it is important for them to report gunshot wounds to the police. Contrary to the Code of Ethics of Physicians and the Medical Act, we believe there is a pressing issue for public concern that is being strongly overlooked in this matter. We will explore the areas of human rights, professional secrecy, civil responsibilities, as well as patient consent in order to justify our claim.