Running Head: HEALTHCARE ETHICS 1

Assignment 1: Healthcare Ethics

[Name of Author]

[Name of Institution]
HEALTHCARE ETHICS 2

Assignment 1

Healthcare Ethics

Question 1

Under HIPAA, there are several rights given to the patients regarding their medical

record and confidentiality including the following the right (Freedman, Cantor, Merriman &

Edgerton, 2016):

 To receive a notice related to the privacy practices

 To request and have access of the medical records

 To request the medical authorities to amend the medical records

 To accounting of disclosures and request for privacy protection specially for PHI

 To access the medical records of the children such as minors.

The patient gives the right to confidentiality when there is a serious treatment or tests

required to be conducted by the medical authorities.

Question 2

The healthcare professionals cannot be legally liable for all the unsatisfactory outcomes if

they have the consent of the patients before starting any treatment, conducting any tests or

operations which can directly or indirectly cause harm to the patient’s health. However, if the

patient’s consent has not been considered by the medical officer or healthcare professional then

the very healthcare professional or the medical officer can be held liable for the unsatisfactory

outcomes. Therefore, it can be certainly said that the medical practitioner cannot be held liable

for the results of the treatments that are initiated and provided to the patients.
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Question 3

As it is known that for every contract it is required that the parties signing the contract

should be competent to be bound by the contractual terms (Nimita & Carol, 2014). Thus, if the

patient is not in a sound position or has been suffering from some kind of illness in which he/she

cannot give the consent to agree or disagree with the terms of the contract, whilst the contract is

made between the physician and the patient, such a contract would be deemed as a void contract.

Similarly, if the patient is a minor, in such a situation the contract would be considered as void.

Question 4

A biomedical issue is an issue where there are several conflicts raised between the

medical authorities and scientists bringing new innovations and developments in the

technologies. There are numerous biomedical issues highlighted by the concerned intellectuals of

science and medicine such as abortion, determination of death and research on the stem cell and

human DNA. The people associated with the field of science contemplates that it is required in

the contemporary times that there should be developments brought in every field of medicine and

science whereas the views of the common people on issues such as abortion and research on

human DNA has been quite critical against the individuals linked with the field of research and

science.

Question 5

If the physician has not taken reasonable care to treat the patient while it is required that

the patient should be treated with special care, such a practice of the physician can turn into
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malpractice. Secondly, if any of the medical staff member has shared the confidential

information of the patient with any of the employer, such an act of the medical staff member

could turn into malpractice according to the HIPAA Privacy rules (Tipton, Forkey & Choi,

2016).

Question 6

In the realms of healthcare, when a consent for a particular treatment is inferred through

silence, inaction or signs of the patient, such a form of consent is known as implied consent. The

nodding of the head of the patient can be considered as one of the way to accept the treatment by

implied consent. Secondly, fasting for 24 hours can also be deemed as one of the way to accept

treatment by implied consent.

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References

Freedman, R. S., Cantor, S. B., Merriman, K. W., & Edgerton, M. E. (2016). 2013 HIPAA

Changes Provide Opportunities and Challenges for Researchers: Perspectives from a

Cancer Center. Clinical Cancer Research, 22 (3), 533-539.

Nimita, L., & Carol, I. B. (2014). The modern social contract between the patient, the healthcare

provider, and digital medicine. Journal of Socialomics, 2014.

Tipton, S. J., Forkey, S., & Choi, Y. B. (2016). Toward Proper Authentication Methods in

Electronic Medical Record Access Compliant to HIPAA and CIA Triangle. Journal of

medical systems, 40(4), 1-8.