VIP Treatment

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VIP treatment of patients is a common practice in our health care systems. “Preferential treatment of VIPs can either be blatant, as in the case of celebrities or donors, or more insidious, as when members of the health care team are expected to treat other physicians or their family members preferentially” (Sheffield & Smith, 2016). In this critique, issues that place danger on a patient’s care, such as scheduling a VIP patient more quickly, denying resident assistance, and requesting special VIP treatment will be discussed. The possible dangers ultimately create an ethical dilemma for the medical staff expected to perform VIP treatment for patients. The primary case of this article is about a surgical pathologist named Javier who is called to perform a biopsy on a “VIP” donor patient of the hospital. The department chair wrote a handwritten note to take good care of the patient and to read his biopsy immediately following the procedure. Javier views all patients equally; he does not understand why this patients result should be read more quickly than the other patients waiting on their results. However, Javier feels pressured because his department chair made these requests. Scheduling VIP patients quickly can lead to shifting …show more content…

These residents work as assistants to the doctors, and most surgical procedures cannot be completed without their assistance. Patients of VIP status may demand for attending physicians to perform their procedures and refuse the attendance of the resident. Because residents play an important role in surgical procedures, “[t]his deviation from routine practice could compromise safety and quality in ways not anticipated by the patient at the time of a request” (Sheffield & Smith, 2016). Attending physicians could possibly oversee a vital step in a surgical procedure without the resident available in the operating

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