Running Head: MEDICAL LAW AND ETHICS

MEDICAL LAW AND ETHICS: A Case Study

Written FOR Coleman, P.

University/ Affiliation

Medical Law and Ethics : A Case Study

MEDICAL LAW AND ETHICS

Case Study background:
Case Particulars: 2007-0376. Hageman v. Southwest Gen. Health Ctr., Slip Opinion No.
2008-Ohio-3343.

1A) Breach of Confidentiality as regards the Psychiatrist and

his Patient Kenneth Hageman
Here, the state of affairs is as follows:
Mr. Hageman was under the medical treatment of his Psychiatrist and was being treated
for bi-polar disorder as he had homicidal thoughts about his wife. Bi-polar disorder is a
dangerous psychiatric condition as it fluctuates from one extreme of feelings from the other. The
Psychiatrist, being competent in his profession and therefore the authority here, was treating
the patient and treated him for seven months. In this period, (starting after one month of his
treatment had taken place), the other incidents occurred i.e. the wife filing for divorce, Hageman
filing the counter suit, slapping of criminal charges against Hageman for allegedly trying to
assault the wife, etc. As stated before, the incidents occurred after a month of the treatment and
continued throughout it. That the psychiatrist never tried to enforce any condition of solitary
living or any sort of quarantine of Mr. Hageman from his family during this entire period is
significant in the sense that the psychiatrist did not think that Hageman constituted any physical
danger to his wife and child, at any point during the seven months treatment. This point needs to
be considered as important. For convenience later, we will denote this as CONCLUSION#A

1B) The legality of Subpoenas asking for health records and/or

information post HIPAA.
A Subpoena is simply a request from an attorney on the behalf of a particular court and
relating to a particular case for information. Subpoena related cases are usually not concluded yet
and that is why records are sought i.e. to bring it to a conclusion. For Health information records,

MEDICAL LAW AND ETHICS

HIPAA compliance is necessary to release Health records i.e. the patient needs to agree to the
release of the Health Records or the attorneys request should have the backing of the court under
which the patients case is being tried. Attorney Belovitchs request satisfied neither of the
provisions. (Grossman & Guillory, October, 2004). Yet, the psychiatrist not only released
Hagemans Health Records to Belovitch but this was done through fax, which cannot be
considered as a proper way to transmit confidential information. Anyone can read a fax message
who is in the chain of fax transmittal and receipt duties.
I therefore opine that the psychiatrist in this case was guilty of a breach of confidentiality
of the physician-patient confidentiality relationship. I also accuse the psychiatrist of breach of
ethics for the cavalier way in which the confidential Health records were released. The
psychiatrist should have responded to the subpoena by asking for HIPAA compliant signed form
of the client or the courts orders which commands the release irrespective of whether the patient
consents to the same or vice-versa

2. The Attorneys actions.

It is crystal clear that the attorneys actions have violated HIPAA and are unethical to the
utmost. Misunderstandings have no place on a court of law which deals with such weighty
matters as a persons criminal or civil guilt, the decision may even resulting in a conviction of an
individual and the loss of his liberty for a certain period. Moreover, from CONCLUSION#A, it
is evident that the patients health records will have nothing to do with the defenses case. Injury
to the child or the wife is clearly ruled out by CONCLUSION#A, and yet the attorney fails to
register this simple fact arising from an equally simple act of reasoning. Therefore, in my
opinion, the attorney is clearly at fault for breaching medical ethics and shows herself as

MEDICAL LAW AND ETHICS

incompetent. She poses a danger to the wellbeing of Disbursement of Criminal Justice and Civil
Justice, in the law courts of the state. While the words may sound harsh, it needs to be considered
that we are dealing with law and justice here.
****************
REFERENCE
Grossman , H.P and Guillory, A.K. ( 2004, October). A Year in the Life of HIPAA:
New Tips, Observations and Suggestions for Improvement. Litigation: Law Trends and
News Retrieved from
http://www.americanbar.org/content/newsletter/publications/law_trends_news_practice_a
rea_e_newsletter_home/hipaa.html