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Relying on the authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for infection control procedures should be safe, even if the CDC later proves to be wrong, suggests Jane J. McCaffrey, MHSA, CIC, DASHRM, a risk management consultant in Easley, SC, and a past president of American Society for Healthcare Risk Management. However, that statement does not diminish the hospitals obligation to properly train staff on protocols and provide the necessary equipment, she says.
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In one sense, undocumented patients are like any other patients some have health insurance, but many will not. Whats particularly challenging is that undocumented patients who are uninsured will usually not qualify for the safety net programs that provide assistance for similar patients with citizenship, says Mark Kuczewski, PhD, chair of the Department of Medical Education and director of the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics at Loyola University in Maywood, IL.
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Blogs, message boards, and patient communities are being used not only by patients, but also by research participants. In some cases, this reveals whether or not a participant is taking actual medication or placebos, compromising the studys validity.
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Should cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) be given to end-stage Ebola patients, despite the risk to health care providers? What training is necessary at this point to ensure staff and patients are protected?
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At the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia, MO, about 80% of ethics consults are called for patients who are either dying or near death in the critical care setting, estimates David A. Fleming, MD, MA, FACP, professor of medicine, chairman of the Department of Medicine and director of the Center for Health Ethics.
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The ethical justification for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is distributive justice, with the goal of making health insurance available to more Americans, notes Dennis M. Sullivan, MD, director of the Center for Bioethics at Cedarville (OH) University
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A patient came for a consult for a prophylactic bilateral salpingoopherectomy the removal of fallopian tubes and ovaries because of a strong maternal family history of breast cancer.
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The patient, an adult man, was scheduled for a standard cataract surgery in 2008 on his left eye. During the procedure, the ophthalmologist ordered a dye named VisionBlue that is used to stain the cataract in the eye so that it can be more easily visualized and removed during the surgery. However, although the ophthalmologist ordered the correct dye, the nurse who fulfilled the request instead brought methylene blue rather than the correct VisionBlue.
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The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued a proposed rule that would amend the safe harbors to the anti-kickback statute and the civil monetary penalty (CMP) rules to protect certain payment practices and business arrangements from criminal prosecution or civil sanction.
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Clinicians deal with plenty of dangerous substances and infectious diseases, but the idea of caring for an Ebola patient can make even the most dedicated nurse waver. When employees are reluctant to take on that task, risk managers must ensure that the hospital is not violating employment laws that might apply.
