Question

Explain the impact of failure to comply with state and federal laws, regulations, and statutes in health care. Be sure to include the doctrine of corporate negligence in your answer. Also, discuss the steps that are employed for ethical decision making in health care, including the four key ethical principles.

Your response must be at least 500 words in length

Answer 1

Major problems can come up through failure by any healthcare staff to abide by the rules and regulations as expected of them. Some of these issues are in relation to fraud; this is when someone lies about information that is crucial in the facility or when one steals funds from the facility.Another one is battery; this is a situation when a staff attends to a patient without their permission. It is very important to get permission to carry out any medical procedure to a patientin the facility. Next, is non-reporting of a problem. Here, there are situations when a healthcarespecialist realizes that a patient, for instance, was abused through raping or domestic abuse anddoesn’t take an initiative of reporting to the relevant authority in charge so that an action is takenaccordingly as expected by the law. Also, it is a serious problem to falsify the records. It is notright to give out false records for purposes of covering up a problem. A criminal charge caneasily be executed to a healthcare worker in case of such a situation. The last one is malpractice.This is commonly known as negligence by the professional.

The consequences of non-compliance are not limited to legal penalties or imprisonment. They leaves you at risk for financial losses, security breaches, license revocations, poor patient care, erosion of trust, and a damaged reputation.

Corporate negligence is the legal doctrine that holds health-care facilities, such as hospitals, nursing homes and medical clinics, responsible for the well-being of patients. If a health-care facility fails to maintain a clean and safe environment, hire competent and properly trained employees, oversee care and implement safety policies, it can be held liable for any harm to patients. Any small health-care business could theoretically be sued under the doctrine of corporate negligence for the actions of its employees. Examples include :

• Failing to check doctor credentials
• Performing a license check that is not thorough enough
• Failing to maintain and provide a safe, clean medical environment
• Failing to properly train medical employees
• Implementing policies that are unsafe

The four key ethical principles include

1. autonomy : the ability to make decisions for oneself, also known as self-government
2. beneficence : the act of being kind. The beneficent practitioner provides care that is in the best interest of the patient
3. nonmaleficence : means doing no harm. Providers must ask themselves whether their actions may harm the patient either by omission or commission
4. justice : equity and fairness in treatment

Steps employed for ethical decision making :

• Understand the problem : The problem concerning the patient is well understood
• Seek out relevant assistance, guidance and support
• Identify and Evaluate alternatives that provides the patient with the best care and result.
• Make the decision
• Evaluate and implement the decision : ensure that the decision taken is at the best interest of the patient and the patient is satisfied with the decision before implementing it.