Introduction
Various situations in the healthcare sphere assume that ethical standards are not essential in providing customers with sufficient services. This essay explores the case between the Popovich and Allina health systems and their court proceedings. Particular attention will be paid to ethical theories and guidelines to help the facility increase the efficiency of its employees. To improve that situation with hired workers, increasing their sincerity and integration into the medical facility’s processes is necessary.
Ethics Issue of the Case
The case of Popovich v. Allina health system is an illustrative situation of specific drawbacks within healthcare facilities. Notably, the healthcare provider’s negligence in the patient’s state of health while ignoring professional duties was chosen as the primary issue. The healthcare workers prescribe similar operations regardless of the worsening of the patient’s state.
The negligence is considerably depicted through the Inattentiveness to the second Mr. Popovich’s visit and his concerns as indifference. To support this statement, it will be vital to state the citation from the case. According to Justian (n. d.), “a doctor working in the emergency room ordered a second CT scan of Mr. Popovich’s head” (p. 1). Consequently, the ethical issue assumes ignoring the patient’s specific health state and unwillingness to help him.
Ethical Theory
As an ethical theory that will be important to use, one can underline virtue ethics theory. This approach assumes the complete immersion of the worker into the patient’s health state and concerns. As stated by Furlong (2018), “virtue ethics leads to the conclusion that persons socialized to put the patient’s interest first will come up with the ethically correct ranking of options.” (p. 12).
For example, from the case, it is vital to state that the workers who provided the tests were employees of the Emergency Physicians Professional Association (EPPA) (Justian, n. d.). Consequently, increasing their involvement and empathy towards the patient and their ethics are crucial. The employees should be integrated into the process to follow all necessary ethical points and give the patient the most qualitative healthcare services. In addition, they should have compassion when listening to the person’s concerns to create an appropriate diagnosis and testing.
A Clinician–Patient Shared Decision-Making Model and Guidelines
As a clinical-patient shared decision-making model, it is helpful to state the concept based on the patient’s values and preferences. The worker’s job should be based on immersion into every client’s peculiarity and health state. The unique circumstances, such as improving or worsening their concerns, should be considered. Therefore, as the first guideline, thoroughly considering patient concerns and statements regarding their health state and issues was selected (Fishman, 2020).
Another guideline will be to analyze and conclude the tests’ results in a precise and thorough way with attention to specific details and the patient’s symptoms (Fishman, 2020). When revisiting the same patient occurs, it is crucial to understand what healthcare worker’s decisions did not help the previous time and change them accordingly to provide a qualitative test the second time. The Proposed ethical points will hold healthcare providers accountable while increasing their sincerity and attentiveness while providing the person with medical services. In other words, the workers will have greater responsibility and consciousness when conducting their duties.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is essential to highlight the necessity of alignment of healthcare worker activities with ethical standards. The importance of this issue is based on the possibility of assessing the specifications of the unique circumstances to understand the plan of action in addressing the needs and concerns of a particular patient. Therefore, such theories as virtue ethics can be helpful when starting a framework for constructing qualitative and conscious healthcare providers’ work.
References
Fishman, S. (2020). Consultant & independent contractor agreements (10th ed.). NOLO.
Furlong, B. (2018). Health care ethics (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Popovich v. Allina Health System. (2020). Justia. Web.