This 6 page paper examines a fictitious case study to analyze the dilemmas faced by hospital administrators. Confidentiality is discussed in various contexts under a number of ethical paradigms.
Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: RT13_SA535cse.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
also want to be sure that personal information does not get into the hands of unscrupulous individuals. Also, there is a fear that government agencies, and insurance companies, will use
medical data to suit their own purposes. If someone has a bad gene, an insurance company may refuse to insure an individual or the government may use a drug screen
to prosecute someone for possession of a controlled substance. There is no telling where a breach of confidentiality could go. Also, ethically, it is the right of everyone to have
their individual data protected. In a case study, it seems that the rights of individuals are protected under the law. However, when a patient dies in a hospital, a prosecutor
may want information to which he is not entitled. What is a hospital administrator to do? II. Case Study In respect to choosing an ethical
dilemma in a business context, a student chooses the issue of patient confidentiality. For the sake of creating a fictitious case study, it is supposed that a patient confides in
one member of the hospital staff that he is under the influence of a dangerous drug such as heroin. It is recorded in the written record. The patient also adamantly
refuses a recommended treatment, but he is only 16 years old. The parents go along with the patients decision and he dies of a drug overdose. The information is recorded
in the physical record, but when the information is transcribed to the computer, some data is withheld. The hospitals computer systems are not up to date with current confidentiality requirements
so the drug use and certain other recorded information is left out. The patient dies and the media jumps on the case. Why did a 16 year old seemingly