Legal & Ethical Issues in Healthcare

Legal & Ethical Issues in Healthcare

Introduction

Since few last decades ethical and social issues in healthcare have arched to prominence. Ethics in health care is not merely about the decision making processes in boardrooms and executive offices, but it is also about the decision making processes at the bedside and in clinical practices, which happens to be more important.

Discussion

One of the basic ethical issues in health care organization is confidentiality. In the patient-healthcare provider relationship is the most profound relationship in the medical doctrines. Physicians and healthcare providers have great responsibility of keeping the patients' confidence. At times it becomes difficult to decide if the information regarding patients' diagnosis, treatment and disease should be disclosed to the respective family members and other individuals that can be affected with the information in positive or negative way. In general the medical code of ethics physician and healthcare provider s are responsible to maintain the confidentiality of the patient to the utmost level. However confidentiality can be breached. The health care provider should be aware of the professional code of conduct and must keep his or her self upgrade with any alterations in the law to recognize when it might be justified to override the obligation of confidentiality. The consideration of confidentiality related issues are crucial to everyone in healthcare organization (Harding, Gray and Neal, 2011).

Secondly Justice and equality is another very important issue to be considered. The aim of every healthcare organization is to become people centered organization, providing best possible care. To make it possible justice, which is one of the most fundamental bases of ethical code of conduct should be generously promoted. It is the chief ethical consideration in the field of healthcare and its resource allocation as justice and equity is concerned with fairness ...