Case Study: Approaches to Ethical Dilemmas
For this paper I have selected case number two from the text, Ethical Case Studies for Health Information Management, entitled “Scope of Practice” (Grebner, 2009). The case describes Nadia who is a registered health information technician that works as a release of information specialist at Anytown General Hospital. Nadia has a year and a half of nursing school education, but decided to go to school for health information technology.
Our text tells us that one day while working in the release of information area of the hospital, Nadia was approached by a husband, who is the patient, and his wife looking to pick up a copy of the husband’s results of his bilateral Doppler studies test done on his legs …show more content…
He was also an avid runner. The patient had an appointment to see the specialist and take with him the results of the Doppler studies test the following week. He and his wife discussed what Nadia had told them about the test results being normal and decided based on the information that she gave them, to go out and run. Tragedy ensued when the patient developed shortness of breath and severe chest pain and then collapsed. The patient was taken to Anytown General Hospital’s emergency room where he was eventually pronounced dead due to an embolism. Afterward the emergency room physician discussed with the wife what had happened. The ER physician explained to the wife that after reviewing the results of the Doppler study that it showed that the deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was still present, and that when the patient was out running, the blood clot that was once immobile became mobile and eventually ended up in the pulmonary artery. The wife expressed to the ER physician that the individual, Nadia, who had given them copies of their medical records read and interpreted the Doppler test results and told she and her husband that the tests appeared normal. The ER physician then explained to the wife of the patient that the individual that gave she and her husband the records was not properly or professionally trained nor licensed to interpret or determine a diagnosis from the test results and that the husband and wife …show more content…
Nadia giving the patient and his wife information that went above and beyond her level of expertise and knowledge was a breach of duty (Corey, Schneider-Corey, & Callanan, 2011, 2007). The best action that Nadia could have taken was to admit that she was neither qualified nor authorized by the hospital to interpret the report, but instead she practiced beyond the scope of her competency because she was concerned what her peers and the patient would think of her not being 100% sure of her interpretation (Grebner,
For this paper I have selected case number two from the text, Ethical Case Studies for Health Information Management, entitled “Scope of Practice” (Grebner, 2009). The case describes Nadia who is a registered health information technician that works as a release of information specialist at Anytown General Hospital. Nadia has a year and a half of nursing school education, but decided to go to school for health information technology.
Our text tells us that one day while working in the release of information area of the hospital, Nadia was approached by a husband, who is the patient, and his wife looking to pick up a copy of the husband’s results of his bilateral Doppler studies test done on his legs …show more content…
He was also an avid runner. The patient had an appointment to see the specialist and take with him the results of the Doppler studies test the following week. He and his wife discussed what Nadia had told them about the test results being normal and decided based on the information that she gave them, to go out and run. Tragedy ensued when the patient developed shortness of breath and severe chest pain and then collapsed. The patient was taken to Anytown General Hospital’s emergency room where he was eventually pronounced dead due to an embolism. Afterward the emergency room physician discussed with the wife what had happened. The ER physician explained to the wife that after reviewing the results of the Doppler study that it showed that the deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was still present, and that when the patient was out running, the blood clot that was once immobile became mobile and eventually ended up in the pulmonary artery. The wife expressed to the ER physician that the individual, Nadia, who had given them copies of their medical records read and interpreted the Doppler test results and told she and her husband that the tests appeared normal. The ER physician then explained to the wife of the patient that the individual that gave she and her husband the records was not properly or professionally trained nor licensed to interpret or determine a diagnosis from the test results and that the husband and wife …show more content…
Nadia giving the patient and his wife information that went above and beyond her level of expertise and knowledge was a breach of duty (Corey, Schneider-Corey, & Callanan, 2011, 2007). The best action that Nadia could have taken was to admit that she was neither qualified nor authorized by the hospital to interpret the report, but instead she practiced beyond the scope of her competency because she was concerned what her peers and the patient would think of her not being 100% sure of her interpretation (Grebner,