Overview: The final case study for this course will require you to analyze a court decision in which a physician was found liable for medical malpractice. You will focus on facts pertaining to the medical standard of care, breach of care, and causation, and you will explain how they were applied to law. You will then use the facts of the case to identify an ethics issue and determine an ethical theory that would help provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient. Next, you will apply a clinician–patient shared decision-making model to describe how the ethics issue could be resolved. You will also include a discussion about possible violations of the code of ethics in your given field. Lastly, you will augment or vary the facts of the case to create a hypothetical scenario that changes the outcome so that the physician is no longer liable for medical malpractice.
Prompt: In this project, you will analyze a court case involving medical malpractice. For this milestone, you will use the facts from the original case to identify an ethics issue, determine an ethical theory that would help provide a safe and quality healthcare experience for the patient, and apply a clinician–patient shared decision-making model.
III. Ethical Component: In this section, you will evaluate the case to identify the specific ethical issues and determine ethical theories and shared decision-making models that would help resolve the issue and provide a safe, quality healthcare experience. Then, you will propose and defend ethical guidelines for healthcare providers to follow in order to avoid future incidents.
A. Describe the ethical issues that led to the malpractice case and explain why the issues are credited with causing the incident. Support your response with research and relevant examples from the case.
B. Describe an ethical theory that would help resolve the issue and provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient. Support your response with research and relevant examples from the case.
C. Select a physician–patient shared decision-making model and explain how it would provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient
D. Propose ethical guidelines that would have helped prevent the incident and would help the organization prevent future incidents.
E. Defend how your proposed ethical guidelines will hold healthcare providers accountable to themselves, their profession, their patients, and the public.
Rubric Guidelines for Submission: Your paper should be a 2- to 3-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and at least three sources cited in APA format.
5-2 Final Project Milestone Two: Ethical Components of the Malpractice Case
Overview:
The final case study for this course will require you to analyze a court decision in which a physician was found liable for medical malpractice. You will focus on facts pertaining to the medical standard of care, breach of care, and causation, and you will explain how they were applied to law. You will then use the facts of the case to identify an ethics issue and determine an ethical theory that would help provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient. Next, you will apply a clinician–patient shared decision-making model to describe how the ethics issue could be resolved. You will also include a discussion about possible violations of the code of ethics in your given field. Lastly, you will augment or vary the facts of the case to create a hypothetical scenario that changes the outcome so that the physician is no longer liable for medical malpractice.
Prompt:
In this project, you will analyze a court case involving medical malpractice. For this milestone, you will use the facts from the original case to identify an ethics issue, determine an ethical theory that would help provide a safe and quality healthcare experience for the patient, and apply a clinician–patient shared decision-making model.
III. Ethical Component: In this section, you will evaluate the case to identify the specific ethical issues and determine ethical theories and shared decision-making models that would help resolve the issue and provide a safe, quality healthcare experience. Then, you will propose and defend ethical guidelines for healthcare providers to follow in order to avoid future incidents.
A. Describe the ethical issues that led to the malpractice case and explain why the issues are credited with causing the incident. Support your response with research and relevant examples from the case.
B. Describe an ethical theory that would help resolve the issue and provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient. Support your response with research and relevant examples from the case.
C. Select a physician–patient shared decision-making model and explain how it would provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient
D. Propose ethical guidelines that would have helped prevent the incident and would help the organization prevent future incidents.
E. Defend how your proposed ethical guidelines will hold healthcare providers accountable to themselves, their profession, their patients, and the public.
Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Your paper should be a 2- to 3-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch
margins, and at least three sources cited in APA format.
Propose a solution to the following scenario using each of the five ethical theories presented in this module. Explain how your solution aligns with the major ideas within each theory.
Scenario: There is a pandemic of a contagious disease. In the United States, there is only enough of the vaccine to cover 70% of the population. How do you determine who gets the vaccine?
| Theory | Solution |
| a. Utilitarianism | Contagious diseases adversely affect the health of people with low immunity such as children, the elderly, and those with preexisting medical conditions such as cancer and diabetes compared to healthy adults. Consequently, in the case of the pandemic the vaccine could be first administered to these groups of people to prevent fatalities. The ethical theory of utilitarianism focuses on the greatest good for the greatest number of people, which ideally could be met by administering the vaccine to children, the elderly, and those suffering from chronic conditions who are the majority of the American population (Herring, 2016). |
| b. Rights-based ethics | The government, through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), could also administer the available vaccine to individuals at more risk in each household to meet the requirement of equal access to healthcare during the pandemic. The theory of right-based ethics offers individuals to right to obtain necessary medical care without discrimination (Brazier, Devaney & Mullock, 2018). Hence, the American government would be compelled to provide the vaccine to all the families regardless of their race, religion, or ethnic affiliations. |
| c. Duty-based ethics | HHS could also undertake a nationwide mass testing and isolate individuals that are already affected by the disease for treatment. HHS has a responsibility of ensuring that all Americans are healthy (Parker et al., 2018). Thus, the officials in this department must undertake their duties of ensuring that all Americans are safe from the contagious disease. Duty-based ethics advocates for taking individual responsibility in various capacities, which makes it necessary for HHS officials to isolate those affected by the pandemic and provide the citizens that are yet to contract the disease with the necessary available vaccination. |
| d. Justice-based ethics | Equally, the HHS officials could undertake a surveillance of regions that could highly be affected by the disease due to their low socio-economic status for the administration of the available vaccine. In this case, the department would offer the vaccine freely without determining the social and economic positioning of people in such regions. The justice-based ethics supports equal distribution of resources without creating a sense of advantage or disadvantage to a specific group of people (Brazier, Devaney & Mullock, 2018). Hence, to achieve this equality, the health officials will have to consider American citizens categorized under the low socio-economic class such as the homeless for initial administration of the vaccine. |
| e. Virtue-based ethics | Public participation would equally be a significant approach in determining those who receive the vaccination at the first instance. Virtue-based ethics requires that people act with honesty and truthfulness to win the trust of people. As such, involving the public in determining how to administer the limited vaccines for the contagious disease would be critical in meeting virtue-based ethics. |
Consider the same scenario, but explain what process you would need to add to your solution to protect the bioethics principles.
| Principle | Solution |
| a. Autonomy | For HHS official to successfully administer vaccines for the contagious diseases among those at risk, the department will have to inform the elderly and people suffering from prevailing conditions on the essence of taking the vaccine (Parker et al., 2018). For example, patients suffering from cancer need to be informed on the high risk of contracting the contagious disease and why it would be necessary to vaccinate them as a precautionary measure to meet the principle of autonomy. |
| b. Beneficence | The American department of health also need to evaluate the benefits and potential hazards of administering the vaccines to protect the citizens from the contagious diseases. The process meets the principle of beneficence as it ensures that the vaccine does not cause human health complications both in the short- and long-term (Herring, 2016). |
| c. Nonmalfeasance | Similarly, while administering the vaccine to the selected groups, the health officers need to ensure that the identified health effects are resolved within the required time to prevent patients from any form of harm. While vaccine could be beneficial in stopping the spread of the disease, it could impose some adverse health effects which medial practitioners need to counter to ensure the citizen’s wellbeing to meet the principle of Nonmalfeasance. |
| d. Justice | During the vaccination process, all identified groups for vaccination must be subjected to the same treatment process to achieve equality and fairness required under the principle of justice in bioethics. |
References
Brazier, M., Devaney, S., & Mullock, A. (2018). Reflections on Bioethics and Law: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.
Herring, J. (2016). Medical Law and Ethics (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Parker, M., Willmott, L., White, B., Williams, G., & Cartwright, C. (2018). Law as Clinical Evidence: A New ConstitutiveModel of Medical Education and Decision-Making. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 15(1), 101-109.
IHP 420 Milestone Two Guidelines and Rubric
Overview: The final case study for this course will require you to analyze a court decision in which a physician was found liable for medical malpractice. You will focus on facts pertaining to the medical standard of care, breach of care, and causation, and you will explain how they were applied to law. You will then use the facts of the case to identify an ethics issue and determine an ethical theory that would help provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient. Next, you will apply a clinician–patient shared decision-making model to describe how the ethics issue could be resolved. You will also include a discussion about possible violations of the code of ethics in your given field. Lastly, you will augment or vary the facts of the case to create a hypothetical scenario that changes the outcome so that the physician is no longer liable for medical malpractice.
Prompt: In this project, you will analyze a court case involving medical malpractice. For this milestone, you will use the facts from the original case to identify an ethics issue, determine an ethical theory that would help provide a safe and quality healthcare experience for the patient, and apply a clinician–patient shared decision-making model.
III. Ethical Component: In this section, you will evaluate the case to identify the specific ethical issues and determine ethical theories and shared decision- making models that would help resolve the issue and provide a safe, quality healthcare experience. Then, you will propose and defend ethical guidelines for healthcare providers to follow in order to avoid future incidents.
A. Describe the ethical issues that led to the malpractice case and explain why the issues are credited with causing the incident. Support your response with research and relevant examples from the case.
B. Describe an ethical theory that would help resolve the issue and provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient. Support your response with research and relevant examples from the case.
C. Select a physician–patient shared decision-making model and explain how it would provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient D. Propose ethical guidelines that would have helped prevent the incident and would help the organization prevent future incidents. E. Defend how your proposed ethical guidelines will hold healthcare providers accountable to themselves, their profession, their patients, and the
public.
Rubric Guidelines for Submission: Your paper should be a 2- to 3-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and at least three sources cited in APA format.
Critical Elements Proficient (100%) Needs Improvement (70%) Not Evident (0%) Value
Ethical Component: Ethical Issues
Describes the ethical issues that led to the malpractice case and explains why the issues are credited with causing the incident, and supports with research and relevant examples
Describe the ethical issues that led to the malpractice case and explains why the issues are credited with causing the incident, but description lacks details or does not support with research and relevant examples
Does not describe the ethical issues that led to the malpractice case and does not explain why the issues are credited with causing the incident
18
Ethical Component: Ethical Theory
Describes an ethical theory that would help resolve the issue and provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient, and supports with research and relevant examples from the case
Describes an ethical theory that would help resolve the issue and provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient, but description lacks detail, is illogical, or does not support with research or relevant examples
Does not describe an ethical theory that would help resolve the issue and provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient
18
Ethical Component: Shared Decision-
Making Model
Selects a physician–patient shared decision-making model and explains how it would provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient
Selects a physician–patient shared decision-making model and explains how it would provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient, but explanation lacks detail
Does not select a physician– patient shared decision-making model and does not explain how it would provide a safe, quality healthcare experience for the patient
18
Ethical Component: Ethical Guidelines
Proposes ethical guidelines that would have helped prevent the incident and would help the organization prevent future incidents
Proposes ethical guidelines that would have helped prevent the incident and would help the organization prevent future incidents, but proposal is cursory
Does not propose ethical guidelines that would have helped prevent current and future incidents
18
Ethical Component: Defend
Defends how the proposed ethical guidelines will hold healthcare providers accountable to themselves, their profession, their patients, and the public
Defends how the proposed ethical guidelines will hold healthcare providers accountable to themselves, their profession, their patients, and the public, but defense lacks detail or is illogical
Does not defend how the proposed ethical guidelines will hold healthcare providers accountable to themselves, their profession, their patients, and the public
18
Articulation of Response
Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization
Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas
Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas
10
Total 100%
