Healthcare Rationing Based on Futility Why Not a Slow Code?
Slow Code is the use of minimal medical intervention in cases that are considered futile: some resuscitative measures are used, so long as they are non-aggressive. Minimal or slow-to-respond staff is also considered slow code. This means that medical personnel would respond slowly to an individual in need of CPR, administering shallow chest compressions and omitting the use of a defibrillator. There is a hustle and bustle surrounding the patient; buttons are pushed and medical personnel go through the motions of saving the patient. This is all part of the act but not the action of resuscitation.
In this case study, a newborn’s abnormalities are considered severe and life threatening. …show more content…
Many critics of the slow code practice consider it deceitful, paternalistic, and damaging to the universal patient-doctor relationship due to a lack of communication skills. First, parents are under the impression that medical care is being administered, when in reality it is being withheld. The intent is to allow a more natural death to occur. Second, the physician is making a medical decision on behalf of the parents. Medical consent is the right of the parents and requires accurate information about the medical condition of the child in order for that consent to be given. Third, parents who discover they were not adequately informed will lack the ability to maintain trust in the doctor-patient relationship, which can create issues with how information must be presented in the future. More so, legal issues could arise if parents believe that their child was not given satisfactory medical attention. Lastly, because of the lack of communication skills, or to elude being the herald of misfortune, physicians may eventually default to the slow code, would any uncomfortable exchange or inability to convey accurate and realistic information persuade a physician make decisions of futility on behalf of the patient and …show more content…
During the woman’s next visit, the physician notices that she is looking unhealthy and asks why she was unable to keep her previous appointments. The patient explains that her health care deductible and copay are too high she is struggling with being able to afford office visits and her name brand prescriptions. The only reason she decided not to cancel her current appointment is that she is experiencing neuropathy of
Slow Code is the use of minimal medical intervention in cases that are considered futile: some resuscitative measures are used, so long as they are non-aggressive. Minimal or slow-to-respond staff is also considered slow code. This means that medical personnel would respond slowly to an individual in need of CPR, administering shallow chest compressions and omitting the use of a defibrillator. There is a hustle and bustle surrounding the patient; buttons are pushed and medical personnel go through the motions of saving the patient. This is all part of the act but not the action of resuscitation.
In this case study, a newborn’s abnormalities are considered severe and life threatening. …show more content…
Many critics of the slow code practice consider it deceitful, paternalistic, and damaging to the universal patient-doctor relationship due to a lack of communication skills. First, parents are under the impression that medical care is being administered, when in reality it is being withheld. The intent is to allow a more natural death to occur. Second, the physician is making a medical decision on behalf of the parents. Medical consent is the right of the parents and requires accurate information about the medical condition of the child in order for that consent to be given. Third, parents who discover they were not adequately informed will lack the ability to maintain trust in the doctor-patient relationship, which can create issues with how information must be presented in the future. More so, legal issues could arise if parents believe that their child was not given satisfactory medical attention. Lastly, because of the lack of communication skills, or to elude being the herald of misfortune, physicians may eventually default to the slow code, would any uncomfortable exchange or inability to convey accurate and realistic information persuade a physician make decisions of futility on behalf of the patient and …show more content…
During the woman’s next visit, the physician notices that she is looking unhealthy and asks why she was unable to keep her previous appointments. The patient explains that her health care deductible and copay are too high she is struggling with being able to afford office visits and her name brand prescriptions. The only reason she decided not to cancel her current appointment is that she is experiencing neuropathy of