Describe the ethical issues that led to the malpractice case and explain why the issues are credit with causing the incident. Support your response with research and relevant examples from the case.
The failure of Dr. Ricketson to confirm if all equipment of conducting the surgery on Arturo were present in the operation room before commencing the operation was against the professional manner of a surgeon. The act creates an ethical issue related to negligence since the actions conducted by Dr. Ricketson were against the medical community standards of care. The ethical issue had caused in the passing of Arturo when Dr. Ricketson, during the operation, decided to apply improvised screwdriver strands when he realized the recommend titanium rods were not available in the operation room. Another ethical issue involves the hiring negligence conducted by non-Party Hawaii Orthopaedics, Inc., which hired Dr. Ricketson with knowledge of his unfitness for conducting the job (Casetext, 2020). The action conducted by Felmeyer, who was present during the operation of neglecting to alert the administration regarding Dr. Ricketson's breach of code of conduct during the operation, created an ethical issue concerning the obligation to whistleblow when one feels the medical provider had breached the medical treatment standards. Hilo Medical Center failed to act ethically when they hired Dr. Ricketson and did not take him via a credentialing procedure; access his competence and physical and mental capability to offer services to the patient.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Describe the ethical theory that would help resolve the issues and provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patience. Support your response with research and relevant examples from the case.
The ethical principle of autonomy when applied, would help in resolving the ethical matters and ensure safe and quality healthcare experience for patients. The ethical principle of autonomy in medical denotes the right of the patients to maintain self-rule or control over their bodies (Summers, n.d). The principle allows the medical practitioner to suggest to the patient or advice the patient without attempting to coerce or persuade the patient towards a particular decision. The violation of the principle of autonomy concerns the health care professional persuading or coercing the patient to make a specific decision. Therefore, the patients must be allowed to make their own decision, even if the decisions are considered not better choices by the health care professional. The patients' decisions should be made independently and according to their values and beliefs (Saint Joseph's University, 2020). In the case, Dr. Ricketson denied Arturo the autonomy right when he decided to use improvised screwdriver strands when he realized that the recommend titanium rods were missing, without the patient consent. If Dr. Ricketson had applied the autonomy ethical principle, it could have improved safe and quality healthcare experience for Arturo, with his death would have been avoided.
Select a physician-patient shared decision-making model and explain how it would provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient.
The clinical practice model would be considered as a physician-patient shared decision-making model. The clinical practice model aims at achieving physician-patient shared decision-making by accomplishing a three-step model that is practical, easily remembered, and can act as a guide to skill development (Elwyn at al., 2012). To accomplish the shared decision making, the model of clinical practice engages three steps that include introducing choices to patients, describing the options to the patient by integrating the patients’ decision sustenance and assisting the patients decide by exploring references.
Propose ethical guidelines that would have helped prevent the incident and would help the organization prevent future incidents.
Ethical guidelines that might have aided to avert the incident and that might have also facilitated the establishment avoid similar incidents in future include protocols such as physical recounting of all tools required in each medical room, including non-surgical rooms. Such protocols will ensure at no point the medical provider end up in a position Dr. Ricketson was. The other ethical guideline is for the medical center to put in place a mandatory rule that would ensure all treatments and surgeries undergo a checklist under the supervision by a senior supervisor before commencing any treatment procedures.
Defend how your proposed ethical guidelines will hold healthcare providers accountable to themselves, their profession, their patients, and the public.
The proposed ethical guidelines, when effected within the Hilo medical center, will enhance the prevention of future incidents related to medical practice negligence by medical providers and the organization. The guidelines will ensure that the physician has employed and assigned critical roles in the medical providers, have a strong background check, are well qualified, and possess excellent credentials. The supervisors would be available in each department to assess and conduct a checklist for every treatment before it is performed to ensure maximum effort within acceptable protocols, and ethical conduct are archived during the patient care process.
References
Casetext. (2020, March 30). Iturralde v. Hilo Med. Ctr . Case Text. https://casetext.com/case/iturralde-v-hilo-med-ctr
Elwyn, G., Frosch, D., Thomson, R., Joseph-Williams, N., Lloyd, A., Kinnersley, P., Cording, E., Tomson, D., Dodd, C., Rollnick, S., Edwards, A., & Barry, M. (2012). Shared decision making: a model for clinical practice. Journal of general internal medicine , 27 (10), 1361–1367. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-012-2077-6
Saint Joseph's University. (2020). How the Four Principles of Health Care Ethics Improve Patient Care . Saint Joseph's University. https://online.sju.edu/graduate/masters-health-administration/resources/articles/four-principles-of-health-care-ethics-improve-patient-care
Summers, J. (n.d). Principles of Healthcare Ethics . http://samples.jbpub.com/9781449665357/Chapter2.pdf
