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Violation of Patient Safety

Refer to Cases 8 and 15 of your Organizational Ethics in Health Care text. How has patient safety been violated in these cases? How could this have been prevented?

Response Guidelines

Respond to the posts of two peers. Initial response to this discussion question should be approximately 250 to 300 words, with any supporting references in APA format. Share similar situations with your peers and propose ways the violations could have be avoided.

Example:

Case #8:

Violation of patient safety is clear in this case. The first mistake was that the organization feared litigation and was their excuse for inaction. The organization had substantial evidence to move against the provider, but believed legal inaction was the cautious course.  Then you have subtle obstruction. This is the physicians and administrators telling investigators what they thought they wanted to hear and mislead them. This case was also one of moral blindness. The hospital didn’t want to take ownership for the physician, instead they wanted him out of the hospital.

This could have been prevented had the physician been monitored more closely. Their internal professional regulation in this case was also insufficient. The hospital has a moral obligation to offer quality care and to investigate to the fullest. This wasn’t done in this case.

Case #15

There are many clear violations in this case in regards to patient care and professional responsibility. The sales person isn’t a licensed professional and had no business performing on a patient. The physician’s themselves knew better than to let the sales representative operate. This has most likely happened but I have a hard time understanding this one; poor judgement was exercised by all involved. For the patient’s sake in the future all need to make sure that they fully understand the procedure. You must make sure that you ask questions about the tools that are going to be used and that they physician can explain his training and his knowledge on the tools.

Although this was a routine procedure a life was lost because of careless attitudes, and the lack of good decision making skills.