Healthcare Administration - Term Paper Example

The interaction of patients with the physicians and the hospital setting builds a favorable ground upon which patients can access quality care and be taken care of by the physicians. The interaction between the parties involved seeks to promote the welfare of all of them. Hospitals are designed to provide care to patients in order to promote their health and wellbeing. Health care facilities raise their welfare by achieving the purpose for which they were established. On the other hand, physicians have a duty to ensure that patients are provided with quality care whenever they need it.

Patients have the right to access health care services and quality care from physicians in hospitals and other health care facilities. Fostering healthy relationships between patients, physicians, and hospitals enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of providing health care services (Ebrahim & Anken, 2008). Contract Principle and Breach of Warranty in the Health Care Setting The health care setting is made up of numerous stakeholders, namely: patients, physicians, healthcare facility administrators, regulatory agencies, insurers, and the government among others.

These stakeholders interact on differentiated grounds and for variant reasons. However, the common denominator is that one of these stakeholders can enter into a contract with another. Warranties are also operational in the health care setting, especially in patient-physician interaction. Government sponsored health care programs constitute contracts between health care facilities and the government through the relevant programs run by the government in that line. On the same note, patients can enter into contracts with insurers to secure insurance coverage.

Over and above this, patients and physicians can engage in contractual relationships relative to provision of care. On the other hand, warranties in the health care setting encompass any assurances made by one party to another, whose breach results in remedial consequences (Afo, Thomason & Karel, 2006). Remedies are only sought after the warranty between two or more parties has been breached. Elements of Proving Negligence The four elements of proof necessary for a plaintiff to prove negligence include duty of care, breach of duty, injury, and proximate cause (Cassels & Janovsky, 2001).

Health care providers are charged with a duty to care for the patient(s) based on an established relationship between the patient and the care provider. However, the heath care provider is not liable for any person who is not regarded as a patient in the capacity of the provider. The provider is expected to act in full capacity in ensuring that the patient’s care needs are met, failure to which negligence may result. Breach of duty is realized when the care provider fails to meet predetermined care standards or even deviates from a commonly known competent professionalism.

This malpractice is in most cases realized from hazards and /or risks associated with a given medical procedure. To avoid this malpractice, care providers often ensure that they make use of informed consents before performing medical procedures that are highly likely to result in breach of duty. Failure to undertake care duty towards a patient by a care provider could also result in negligence. Injury that results from a medical malpractice