Reference no: EM133192029

Assignment - Please respond to the ethics and case study questions. (make sure to write it with citations to the book and/or other outside sources.)

Part 1 - Ethics Issue

The American Medical Association's Code of Medical Ethics states that physicians and other health care practitioners should not provide, prescribe, or bill for services they know are unnecessary. To be fair, however, it's not difficult to understand why a reasonable doctor would want to cover all his or her bases, so to speak, since the threat of a frivolous lawsuit is always looming.

James Wilson sees his physician for intermittent chest pain. Mr. Wilson's symptoms do not include sweating, difficulty breathing, or any other indications of heart problems. After a complete examination that includes a stress test and blood work, the physician is reasonably sure Mr. Wilson does not have heart problems. To protect against liability, however, Mr. Wilson's physician orders a coronary angiogram.

1. IS it ethical for a physician or any other health care practitioner to prescribe or administer a medical treatment or test just to protect against potential liability? Explain your answer.

Part 2 - Case Study

You are a phlebotomist for a community laboratory, and you report for work on an extremely busy day. You travel daily from the lab where you work to the hospital to draw blood, and then back to the lab. You have finished drawing blood at the hospital and are on your way back to the lab when you get a cell phone cal that the hospital needs a complete blood count (CBC) and electrolytes drawn STAT for a patient who has just come into the emergency room (ER).

1. Would you turn around and go back to the ER or drop off your current blood samples and then go back to the ER? Explain your answer.

2. What does the previous question have to do with preventing medical malpractice lawsuits?

Part 3 - Example of two students and need comment for each one

Student 1: Ethics Issue: If a physician or any other health care practitioner prescribes or administers a medical treatment or test solely to protect against potential liability, I see that as unethical. Ideally, providers are supposed to think and serve in the best interest of their patients. When a patient is not feeling well, it is the responsibility of the health care provider to find out why. Ordering certain tests as a precaution for their patients is a reasonable thing to do since chest pain can be a common symptom of many different and underlying medical conditions. This is because unless you are a cardiologist, it is hard to be certain what the patient is going through just based off their symptoms. In this case, if the provider thought that ordering a coronary angiogram would help determine if Mr. Wilson's chest pain was indeed a cardiac concern or not, it would be ethical since the test or treatment is related to the issue at hand. However, if the provider was simply ordering that test in the context of legal protection, that is unethical because it is not being done in the best interest of his/her patients.

Student 2: Case study: I would turn around and go back to the emergency room. The reason behind it is the emergency need that patient needs. The most important is to firstly save the life of the patient in the emergency room than other activities that are not urgent.

The previous code ensures that physicians are adamant and sure of what types of tests and prescriptions that they are offering to patients. It helps to ensure that they have good practice behavior while serving patients and serving them accurately to prevent future shortcomings (American Medical Association, 2012).

American Medical Association. (2012). American Medical Association's code of medical ethics. Opinion E-8.056.