Medical Ethics Advisor – September 1, 2012
September 1, 2012
View Issues
-
Unethical practices may occur when medical errors are disclosed
"We are not completely sure what happened at this time. We are investigating, and will let you know what we learn as soon as possible." -
What if patient requests an advertised medication?
If a patient comes to a provider asking for a specific name-brand medication, how much weight should the request be given? -
Patient experience now linked to doctors' payment
The amount of reimbursement hospitals receive will be tied to physicians' ability to communicate with patients, manage their pain, and explain medications, as a result of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS)'s Hospital Value-based Purchasing Program, which will affect Medicare reimbursements as of October 2012, notes Marshall H. Chin, MD, MPH, Richard Parrillo Family Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago. -
When — if ever — is prayer with patients unethical?
Is it ethical for a physician to pray with a patient? The question that should be asked instead is, "On what grounds would praying with a patient be ethically problematic?" -
"Unholdable" patients are ethical dilemma
One emergency physician might feel comfortable giving a medication by injection to a man distraught from hallucinating and in danger of attempting homicide, while another might prefer a psychiatric consultation for almost all of the psychiatric patients seen in the emergency department. -
Parents refuse vaccines? Ethical response needed
Many pediatricians feel some distress over parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, says Douglas S. Diekema, MD, MPH, attending physician and director of education at the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle (WA) Children's Hospital and professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, also in Seattle.