The development of the 1990 Patient Self Determination Act (PSDA) was necessitated by different historical events and circumstances. Some of the events that lead to PSDA development included malpractice in implementing patient wishes, frequent accusations of physicians for assisting suicide by removing feeding tubes and family or friends obstructing a physician from executing the wishes of the patient or advance directives (La Puma, Orentlicher and Moss, 2013). Therefore, the PSDA was created to encourage every elderly patient to decide about the types and extent of medical care they want to refuse or accept in case they are unable to make such decisions because of illness.
The 1990 Patient Self-Determination Act mandated all health care agencies to recognize the durable power and living will of the attorney for health care. The Act required numerous hospitals, home health agencies, health maintenance organizations, and other health institutions to avail information about advance health care directives to adult patients upon their admission into healthcare institutions (McCloskey, 1991). As much as the law does not apply to personal medical practitioners, it requires these health facilities to provide necessary information to adult patients that relate to their rights under the state laws that administer their advance directives.
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The implementation of the PSDA in the U.S health care has empowered patients to play a role in the decision-making process of healthcare delivery. It has also minimized incidences of under and over-treatment through achieving patients’ wishes (Mulholland, 2011). Additionally, implementation of the act has reduced costs by giving patients to accept or decline expensive critical care. On the other hand, the criminal penalties for violating the PSDA are harsh. The can make a healthcare organization to lose federal funding such as Medicare and other funds. The PSDA may also affect adequate care because it cannot contemplate on every possibility of the treatment of a patient.
The Patient Self-Determination Act has had a significant impact on our organization. Firstly, it has given us the chance to understand how patients perceive about medication and how they want to be handled. The PSDA has also minimized malpractices incidences that were initially caused by physicians’ negligence and family obstruction to implementing the wishes of the patient. Even though the PSDA has played a significant role in the health of the patient, some individuals fear that advanced directives interfere with sufficient care. It is therefore important to consider this in the future to minimize the concerns that emanate from this issue.
References
La Puma, J., Orentlicher, D., & Moss, R. J. (2013). Advance directives on admission clinical implications and analysis of the Patient Self-Determination Act of 1990. Jama , 266 (3), 402-405.
Mulholland, K. C. (2011). Protecting the right to die: the patient self-determination act of 1990.
McCloskey, E. L. (1991). The patient self-determination act. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal , 1 (2), 163-169.
