Legal and Ethical Issues in HC

Select a topic from the list below (bullet points).

The purpose of this assignment is to raise the awareness of a specific employee group in a specific health care setting regarding a potentially critical aspect of their responsibilities.  Target the right issue, the correct employee population.  In other words you are either a head nurse or senior administrator thus your discussion should be as if you were lecturing specific employees on their specific responsibilities and the specific consequences of failing in those responsibilities.

For example: The False Credentials paper issue would be for HR offices while the Critical Event might be for operating room technicians. Patient Treatment Consent might be a good paper for a Palliative Care Organization or an Oncology Clinic discharge planning staff. The paper must discuss accurate information for the setting with full consideration of the relevant state and federal laws with citations that are accessible by the instructor.  The paper can ask questions and use graphics to deliver certain points of information but the graphics must be an addendum to the paper and not in the body of the paper.  -1pt if I have to reformat the paper because of inclusion of graphics in body of paper.  The paper should include in its conclusion “For more information about this issue…” and include a reference or references in your Conclusion.

• The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)
• Elder abuse Mandatory Reporting
• Child abuse Mandatory Reporting
• HIV Mandatory Reporting
• The False Claims Act- the civil penalties
• TB Mandatory Reporting
• Proper treatment of environmental hazards.
• False credentials of health care personnel
• Medical Charting violation
• Violation of HIPAA- confidentiality
• Failure to treat patients in a timely manner
• Failure to maintain required Staffing ratios
• Patient Choice and treatment consent

Outline:  Must use the underlined headings below in your paper and the paper must be in narrative form not outline or bullet format. -2.2pts from 20pts paper is worth if underlined headings not used in your paper. [no chance for an A].

1. Purpose of Paper, topic chosen, applicable Federal and/or state laws

Discuss the purpose of the paper, why you chose the topic choice, and provide the official title of the applicable federal and/or state law, the statute and section number.  Must be either a federal/state statute and you must cite both, if applicable. Thus if there is both a federal and state law that covers the subject you selected, then you must cite both the applicable federal and a state law. If there is a relevant health care organizational policy, please add that also.

2. The specific targeted employee group and specific health services setting

Pick a specific health care setting and specific employee group within the health care setting and then discuss in detail why you picked the specific employee group and the specific health care setting. Examples of health care settings are the ER, the OR, nursing facilities, etc. Specific employee groups include doctors, nurses, program administrators, etc. Please be mindful to tailor your assignment to a specific employee group, specific health care setting and do not discuss your topic in general terms.

3.  Discussion of Three Critical Aspects of Employee’s responsibilities 

You are trying to improve the quality care in your health care organization. Thus, in this discussion area you are lecturing to specific employees, you discussed above, about their specific responsibilities and the specific consequences of failing in those three responsibilities. You must discuss at least three (3) specific employee critical responsibilities. You must also specifically relate the applicable federal and/or state law as to the specific consequences [you may also add relevant hospital policies as well if found] for failing in each of those responsibilities and provide citations to support the consequences. Be sure and include in the discussion the relevant law and hospital policies and how they each are relevant to the employees’ critical responsibilities. Outline below is to help you organize your thoughts but you must use a narrative format to discuss each area.

a) Discussion of Employee Specific Critical Responsibility 1

• Discussion of specific consequence(s)  for failing in this responsibility
• Discussion of specific statutory requirement

b) Discussion of Employee Specific Critical Responsibility 2

• Discussion of specific consequence(s)  for failing in this responsibility
• Discussion of specific statutory requirement

c) Discussion of Employee Specific Critical Responsibility 3

• Discussion of specific consequence(s)  for failing in this responsibility
• Discussion of specific statutory requirement

4. Conclusion – Provide a summary of employee’s critical responsibilities, consequences and the impact failing in those critical responsibilities may have on the quality of health care. Also add a  statement  “For more information about this issue…” and include a reference or references for further information on the issue you discussed.

 5.  References