It is unethical to distort results to fall in your favor. a I chose to talk
about scenario one; one of the physicians wants to have his study
published and receive a grant for his research. a The only issue is that
he is not reporting all of the results; it sounds like the missing results
his assistant is noticing do not reflect the final result. If he is trying to
prove that his method works all the time, he needs to include the
patients who were part of the study and are getting worse.
Some of the challenges present are one, the study results are
inaccurate, and two, the research assistant could possibly lose their
job if they report what the doctor is doing. Hospitals normally have a
policy that should be followed; if they are not followed, one can
report things to the ethics committee or the Quality Assurance
Committee.
I don't think ethics and policy always match up.
Sometimes health professionals follow the policy word for word and
forget to look outside of the box. a There is always an exception to the
rule when working at the hospital. "According to the Principles of
Medical Ethics of the American Medical Association, the physician
ordinarily has the right to refuse to treat any particular patient, but
that right does not apply in the case of a medical emergency" (Harris,
2014). a An example that I can think of is when a Jehovah's witness
comes to the hospital normally, they are bloodless individuals, and if
they receive a blood transfusion, that is considered assault. So what
do you do if your patient is bleeding out on the table? Would you
honor their wishes and possibly let them die, or do the transfusion
and deal with the consequences later? a If a doctor does not align with
the organizational policy, the result would be termination. a Hospitals
normally don't like to be liable.
Citation
Dean Harris. (2014). Contemporary Issues in Healthcare Law and Ethics:
Vol. Fourth edition. Health Administration Press.
