Legal and Ethical Aspects of Health Care Delivery Term Paper

Healthcare Delivery

Imagine what would go through a person's mind if he or she had wrong site surgery. What emotions would arise? Can he or she take legal action? Are ethics involved? One will study in depth the legal and ethical aspects of healthcare delivery of a 62-year-old woman. The legal aspects of the 62-year-old woman are worth noting. They failed to offer her a full disclosure along with an apology from the physician. The hospital did not fully train the doctor on how to do this through proper training. Furthermore, the patient was not allowed to see her face with a mirror to see if the correct spot was marked before the operation, which would have reduced the medical error. This physician neglected her during Ms W's time of distress. In regards to the laws that were broken, she can take him to court for "de facto admission of liability" (Gallagher, 2009). In this particular case, the doctor and the hospital is training, he let down the patient and not taking responsibility for his actions during this process. The hospital is also responsible for possibly not teaching him correctly on how to handle such matters. If the individual and facility were conscientious, then this issue would not have arisen, and Ms W. would not have issues with the outcome. Yes, the provider failed to adhere to ethical standards. For example, he took the Hippocratic Oath, which states within it to do no harm. Since he caused Ms W. harm, he failed to do her any good, which caused legal issues for his neglectful actions by the fact that no one was able to see him again after this incident. Furthermore, the physician failed to keep his commitment to do quality in the healthcare he provided to Ms W. In regards to this failure affecting the patient outcome, she would have known the ethical issues, and would most likely have pursued it further by filing a suit against the doctor and the hospital for both of them not doing their job with high quality.

What is disturbing is that the fellow did not interact with the patient after the procedure. He chose to run away from the situation, and for Ms W. To have the inability to contact him again.This demonstrates that he knew what he did was wrong, but is as liable as the hospital. If he took the time to apologize to Ms W, then this would not have become a major issue where a suit could get filed with an attorney. No one knows if Ms W. would have went to court but she does have that right as a patient receiving care in a hospital setting for the surgical procedure that she wanted done correctly the first time around. Many pros and cons are worth noting when it comes to provider disclosure and an apology for the error to the patient or family after the occurrence. In regards to the benefits, one is able to sympathize with the patient about the error with the utmost sincerity for the mistake that was found after the operation. This may prevent the possibility of it going to court, but is subjective because each person's reaction is different. According to Gallagher (2009), the way a patient may "define an apology's sincerity is not well understood and likely depends on both verbal and nonverbal aspects of clinicians' communication and actions." Since the physician did not apologize, but the facility did, they did demonstrate that they were sorry for what happened to her. With this approach, she could choose to take the hospital to court, but ethically they did everything that was right to meet her needs by not having her pay for the wrong site surgery. She would have shown some sort of grace knowing that everyone is not perfect and it is inevitable for a faux pas to occur. This would have impacted all the medical staff by learning to hold doctor's accountable for their actions that could cause harm, and striving to train them properly in order to avoid this type of an issue again. In fact, many of them would try harder to mark the correct area and confirm it with the patient before going into the surgical suite.

For those that are setbacks, this is worth mentioning as well. The….....