After extracting the screaming infant from the wreckage, the paramedics delicately situate the boy on the stretcher and wheel him into the ambulance. The child, a victim of a traumatic motor vehicle collision, barely holds onto his life, having lost a limb with severe blood loss and head trauma. When the ambulance screeches to a halt outside the emergency room doors, nurses sprint outside and bring the agonized boy inside. Before they can even settle him in a room, doctors have already inputted his symptoms into a database and received his estimated chance of survival and which treatment to administer.
Because of this system, the doctors can utilize more time treating the boy and less discussing how to go about his condition. The new computer program, referred to as RIP, is growing in popularity in hospitals across the nation because it saves time makes tough medical decisions easier. Such a system could become very beneficial to health care across the country and the world. “Medical Technology and Ethical Issues” by William E. Thompson and Joseph V. Hickey discusses the implementation of RIP in healthcare facilities with the challenges and ethics associated with the program. According to the article, “using statistical probability, the program analyzes all of the input on a particular patient and makes a prognosis on the likelihood of survival” (Thompson & Hickey, 2011, para. 2). The article also explains how patients with chances of survival greater than 5 percent are recommended treatments and those with lower chances are encouraged to receive no treatment. Using RIP eliminates the pressure of doctors making decisions on their own as the information outputted provides a guide to help but also does not serve as a mandatory ins...
... middle of paper ...
...he system follows the growing trend and offer advantages that can potentially save thousands of lives. With its speed, near accuracy, and usefulness, medical practices would be at a disadvantage not to use the program. Emergency rooms in the future could focus their limited resources on those who need immediate help with RIP. They may evolve to focus more on urgent injuries or illnesses and less on milder cases that could receive treatment elsewhere. Emergency rooms should function this way as the name itself explains this. Using RIP to receive the information followed by nurses and doctors discussing the treatments and chances of survival offered appears to be the most ethical and effective way to treat patients by creating educated, but not prejudiced, decisions. It is quite astonishing how such simple technology could potentially save such a great number of lives.
Euthanasia should not be accepted as part of the standard way of dying because it not only contradicts the most respected moral principle of ‘thou shalt not kill’, but also good medical practice. The four principles of biomedical ethics can be used as a framework to help guide moral decision-making in difficult situations including euthanasia. Arguments against the moral permissibility of euthanasia which are based on respecting autonomy and non-maleficence outweigh those related to beneficence and justice. In any case of euthanasia, careful evaluation of the interests of the various parties involved is crucial because ethical principles can be contentious at times and their meanings could be interpreted differently from theory to theory (Robison
Almost doctors and physicians in the world have worked at a hospital, so they must know many patients’ circumstances. They have to do many medical treatments when the patients come to the emergency room. It looks like horror films with many torture scenes, and the patients have to pay for their pains. The doctors have to give the decisions for every circumstance, so they are very stressful. They just want to die instead of suffering those medical treatments. In that time, the patients’ family just believes in the doctors and tells them to do whatever they can, but the doctors just do something that 's possible. Almost patients have died after that expensive medical treatments, but the doctors still do those medical procedures. That doctors did not have enough confidence to tell the truth to the patients’ families. Other doctors have more confidence, so they explain the health condition to the patients’ families. One time, the author could not save his patient, and the patient had found another doctor to help her. That doctor decided to cut her legs, but the patient still died in fourteen days
Cardiac monitoring has been available since the early 1960s (Henriques-Forsythe, Ivonye, Jamched, Kamuguisha, Olejeme & Onwuanyi, 2009). George, Walsh-Irwin, Queen, Vander Heuvel, Hawkins, & Roberts (2015) explain, “Remote telemetry monitoring is the monitoring of cardiac rhythms of acute care inpatients from a central locate by personnel who are not directly involved with patient care” (p. 11). Researchers and authors published a multitude of articles, best practices, and standards for hospital monitoring (Drew, 2004, Funk, 2010). A basic internet query reveals injuries and deaths related to remote telemetry monitoring. Guidelines, best practices, and research provide the best evidence in the delivery of safe quality care
The placement of implantable chips into patients for the purpose of accurately identifying patients and properly storing their medical history records has become a subject of a strong debate. Making sure patients are properly identified before a procedure and storing their health history records for future use has been difficult, if not impossible. The idea of being able to retrieve accurate patient’s medical history for a follow up care without relying on patient’s memory is a challenging task for many healthcare organizations. Many ideas and technologies have been introduced over the years to help solve this problem, but unfortunately the problem is still not fully resolved. There are still many errors in the healthcare due in part by improper record keeping and inaccurate patient identification. One idea that has being in discussion to eliminate these problems for good, is the introduction of a chip or radio frequency identification (RFID) technology implanted into human for the purpose storing medical data and accurately identify patients. VeriChip Corporation is currently the maker of this implantable RFID chip. They are the only corporation cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make this implantable radio frequency transponder system for humans for the purpose of identifying patients and storing their health history information. The chip was first developed for the use of radar systems by Scottish physicist, Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt in 1935 just before World War II. (Roberti, 2007). This technology helps identify approaching planes of the enemy from mile away. Today, RFID has several uses. It is used for animal tracking. It is attached to merchandise in stores to prevent theft. It can be instal...
The word ethics is derived from the Greek word ‘ethos’ meaning character or conduct. It is typically used interchangeably with word moral which is derived from the Latin word ‘moves’ which means customs or habits. Ethics refers to conduct, character and motivations involved in moral acts. Ethics are not imposed by a profession, by law but by moral obligation. It is unwritten code of conduct that encompasses both professional conduct and judgement. Ethics helps support autonomy and self-determination, protect the vulnerable and promotes the welfare and equality of human beings. An ethical dentist- patient relationship is based on trust, honesty, confidentiality, privacy and the quality of care.1
Today, there are so many legal dilemmas dominating trial for the courts to make a sound legal decision on whose right in a complicated situation. Despite the outcome of the case, the disagreement usually has a profound effect on the healthcare organization, and the industry as a whole. Many cases are arguments centered around if the issue is a legal or moral principle. Regardless what the situation maybe, the final decision is left to the courts to differentiate between the legality issues at hand opposed to justifying a case based on moral rules. According to Pozgar (2012), an ethical dilemma arises in situations where a choice must be made between unpleasant alternative. It can occur whenever a choice involves giving up something good and suffering something bad, no matter what course of action is taken (p. 367). In this paper, I will discuss cases that arose in the healthcare industry that have been tried and brought to justice by the United States court system.
Albert Jonsen, the author of “A Short History of Medical Ethics”, covers more than two thousand years of renowned medical history in a mere hundred and twenty pages. He covers many cultural customs and backgrounds involving medical discourse, beliefs, and discoveries which have led to the very formation of the distinguished society we live in today. However, throughout this brief tour, Jonsen exploits the fact that even though there have been many cultural differences, there are a few common themes which have assimilated over the years and formed the ethics of medicine. The most prevalent themes of ethics presented in Jonsens text, are decorum, deontology and politic ethics. Decorum is referred to as both the professional etiquette and personal virtues of medicine. Deontology refers to rules and principles, and politic ethics expresses the duties physicians have to the community.
Morality plays a huge role in the health care field. This principle of right and wrong behavior is significant to every doctor when evaluating the merits and difficulties of many medical procedures. One may find the advancement of medical technologies hard to endure, however, this increase in medical technology serves as a solution to our human imperfections. For example, using in-vitro fertilization to pick and choose embryos regarding an ideal genetic baby or human cloning. If we screen an embryo for a tissue type, we can then allow certain physical traits for the baby. We can choose their eye color, type of intelligence, athleticism, and talent that could suggest our babies nonetheless, perfect
Freudenheim, M. (2010, December 13). Panel set to study safety of electronic patient data. The New York Times. Retrieved from Http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/business/14records.html?_r=1&sq=healthcare informatics patient records&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1299414338-50ipQCu8c0TGV6j+8bTQUA
The tones go off, there is a scramble for shirts, ties, and boots. Dispatch announces a motor vehicle accident five blocks away. EMTs and Paramedics climb into ambulances. Police are reporting multiple personal injuries. There is a rush of adrenaline through all those involved. The street comes alive with flashing red and white lights and screaming sirens. Ambulances tear down the street to the accident scene. They arrive to find four cars involved in a high-speed collision. There are seven people involved in this particular accident. Additional trucks are requested and the original scene repeats itself as three more teams join the first two at the scene. Emergency personnel work to disentangle patients from the wreckage of the vehicles. One patient is in full traumatic arrest. Three emergency medical workers operate together to intubate the patient and start IVs while they perform CPR and set up the defibrillator, while simultaneously searching for the patients identification. The team lifts the patient into the back of the ambulance, and while still compressing the patient's chest, breathing for the patient, administering medications, and defibrillating all in an effort to help this patient avoid death, they speed off to the hospital. The EMTs and paramedics in the back of the ambulance continue their efforts enroute to the hospital while the ambulance ricochets off bumps and the workers are bounced all around the back of the vehicle. They finally arrive at the facility where one of the members of the team tells the triage nurse what is happening. They take the patient into a trauma room and lift the patient from their stretcher to the hos...
Physician-assisted suicide refers to the physician acting indirectly in the death of the patient -- providing the means for death. The ethics of PAS is a continually debated topic. The range of arguments in support and opposition of PAS are vast. Justice, compassion, the moral irrelevance of the difference between killing and letting die, individual liberty are many arguments for PAS. The distinction between killing and letting die, sanctity of life, "do no harm" principle of medicine, and the potential for abuse are some of the arguments in favor of making PAS illegal. However, self-determination, and ultimately respect for autonomy are relied on heavily as principle arguments in the PAS issue.
The delivery of healthcare mandates a lot of difficult decision making for healthcare providers as well as patients. For patients, much of the responsibility is left to them especially when serious health problems occur. This responsibility deals with what treatments could be accepted, what treatments could be continued, and what treatments could be stopped. Overall, it considers what route should be taken in regards to the health interests of the patient. However, there are circumstances in which patients cannot decide for themselves or communicate what they want in terms of their healthcare. This is where the ethical issue concerning who should be responsible for making these important healthcare decisions occur if a patient was to be in this sort of situation. Healthcare providers can play a role in the healthcare decision making as their duty is to act in the best interest of the patient.
In the medical ethics case study given to me, Justin is new nurse at a hospital and has become great help to the other employees but he makes mistakes often. When it comes to medical ethics, it is important to do what you know is morally correct. We all want to be good Christians and make the right decisions but sometimes those decisions will affect others negatively. We may not always act how we ought to but those decisions do affect who we are.
The health care is extremely important to society because without health care it would not be possible for individuals to remain healthy. The health care administers care, treats, and diagnoses millions of individual’s everyday from newborn to fatal illness patients. The health care consists of hospitals, outpatient care, doctors, employees, and nurses. Within the health care there are always changes occurring because of advance technology and without advance technology the health care would not be as successful as it is today. Technology has played a big role in the health care and will continue in the coming years with new methods and procedures of diagnosis and treatment to help safe lives of the American people. However, with plenty of advance technology the health care still manages to make an excessive amount of medical errors. Health care organizations face many issues and these issues have a negative impact on the health care system. There are different ways medical errors can occur within the health care. Medical errors are mistakes that are made by health care providers with no intention of harming patients. These errors rang from communication error, surgical error, manufacture error, diagnostic error, and wrong medication error. There are hundreds of thousands of patients that die every year due to medical error. With medical errors on the rise it has caused the United States to be the third leading cause of death. (Allen.M, 2013) Throughout the United States there are many issues the he...
Medical ethics refers to the relationship between health professionals and patients. The trust of patients in physicians has been vanishing. Today a lot of health care providers primary concerns seem to be in profit rather than in providing the proper healthcare to the public. Medical ethics consist of several different principles. Nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and autonomy are just a few of the many principals. Nonmaleficence enacts that a health care providers, can never use treatment to injure or wrong their patients. Beneficence claims that health care providers are obligated to help others further their interest. Justice requires health providers treat every patient as equal and provide equal treatment for everyone with the same