Health Care Ethics

Health Care Ethics

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Health Care Ethics

In a health care setting, there are many advantages and disadvantages in the medical processes and managements. Patients also have their own involvements and circumstances to consider. Doctors or healthcare administrators should observe health care ethics in order to treat their patients well. Health care ethics offer medical practitioners with guiding principles that enable them to make decisions when they inevitably face complex situations involving patients. There are four basic principles of health care ethics that doctors should consider: self-governance, kindness, non-maleficence, and fairness.

Healthcare professionals should let the make patients make their own decision. They are allowed to give advice but not coerce them to make any choice. Whether the doctor believes the choices made by the patients are right or wrong, he or she should let them make decisions independently according to their values or beliefs. Medical officers should do their best to benefit their patients at all times. All treatments undertaken by the health care administrators should be done with utmost good faith for the patients. They should use advanced medical practices and uphold a high level of knowledge and skills, to ensure that their patients are treated in the best possible way. The non-maleficence principle provides that health care practitioners should consider that a decision made should do no harm to the society, even if it is for the patient’s well-being (Garrett, 2016). Doctors should observe all relevant rules and regulations when making choices. They should ensure that all decisions made are in the best interests of all patients and distribute treatment and medical facilities fairly.

Health care administrators play a vital role in assisting every patient, especially when in a difficult situation that requires immediate medical attention (Gillion & Lloyd, 2014). For example, in the case of Michael Mantle’s health problem case, doctors are faced with great dilemmas but should maintain high integrity in order to handle those issues. Even with the advanced technologies, health care officers should make the right choices that will enable them to face the present and future challenges of helping patients receive the best medical attention.

There are seven steps that help doctors make ethical decisions when faced with difficult situations. First, they should stop and think so as to prevent themselves from making impulsive decisions. Therefore, allowing them to think critically before making a decision. They should also make their goals clear. Analyze what they want to achieve and which goals are short-term and long-term. The decisions that an individual may make to satisfy current needs and wants, may end up preventing the attainment of long-term goals (Jackson, 2013). On the other hand, health care providers should ensure that they have vital information in regard to the current issues. They should also be prepared to handle any additional information in relation to that issue. With that information, they can develop options for the procedures to follow in order to achieve their set goals and objectives. In addition, the medical practitioners should consider the consequences of their options so as to filter those that are not ethical. They should identify how a decision can affect other individuals. Lastly, they should make their decisions based on the factors discussed above. Ethical decision-makers make a follow-up on their choices. they ensure that their decisions result in the intended solutions.

In the case of Mickey Mantles, the doctors did not observe the health care ethics because they sped up the medical procedure and treatment since he was a celebrity. The medical administrators overlooked the four principles of healthcare principle, since there was no fairness in the process (Garrett, 2016). For other patients, it takes one hundred and thirty days to get a liver transplant whereas it took only two days for Mickey Mantles. The doctors did not consider the effect of moving Mantle up the list. Though the doctors justified their actions saying that he had a sixty percent chance of surviving which was not common in other patients, he was still known for overcoming huge obstacles.

The health care administrators did not think about their decisions and what harm they caused to other people. Other patients were obviously not pleased especially because they had to wait for more than two months to get a liver transplant whereas it took a celebrity only two days. Though their chances of surviving were higher than that of Mantle, the difference between the periods were lengthy and noticeable. It was clear that the doctors took a short time to give him a liver transplant because he was a former baseball hero. They did not consider the consequences of their options so as to filter those that were not ethical (Gillion & Lloyd, 2014). Maybe there were other cases similar to Mantles or even more critical ones but they were not considered.

The system was not justified to make an exemption for Mickey Mantle because other people also needed to be treated fairly. All other patients were patient and waited the one hundred and thirty days needed to make an organ transplant. Moreover, Mantle’s chance of surviving was sixty percent with a three-year period. Waiting like the rest of the patients could not have caused him great harm. The health care officers did not uphold the utmost good faith of the other patients (Gillion & Lloyd, 2014). evidently, patients could no longer trust Baylor Medical center’s transplant team to conduct an organ transplant for them because they were not fair. They valued other patients more than the others. For lack of their health care ethics, they sure lost a lot of customers because their system was corrupt.

Health care administrators generate plans, make necessary arrangements, and supervise the workers of a health care facility, as well ensure they carry out their duties efficiently and effectively to ensure that the facility functions well. Thus, they play a vital role in ensuring that patients are receiving high quality and ethical treatment (Garrett, 2016). In Mantle’s case, the health care administrators did not uphold integrity. They did not restrict the organs transplant team from conducting such an unjust solution which was unethical. Instead, they should have developed more appropriate solutions that were fair at both ends.

In conclusion, doctors, nurses and other health care officers should observe health care ethics at all times. The should always ensure that all patients receive the best attention that can be provided and are always satisfied with their services. Those patients that are critically ill should receive immediate attention, not because they are celebrities, but because they deserve it. The overall goal of health care facility is to ensure that no lives are lost and that every patient is satisfied with the medical treatment he or she receives.

References

Garrett, T. M. (2016). Health Care Ethics: Principles and Problems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gillion R., & Lloyd, A. (2014). Principle of Health Care Ethics. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Jackson, K. (2013). Improving the healthcare system. Routledge.