Medical Liability and Standard of Care - Essay Example

The trained professional becomes the administrator of the hospital and is responsible to run administrative matters of the hospital. The administrator not only supervises administrative matters but also takes steps to improve the medical staff’s performance. One of the major responsibilities of an administrator is to ensure the delivery of high-quality care and treatment to patients. “Additionally, they control the day-to-day operations of the hospital, making sure patient care is being met in compliance with state standards and hospital policies” (MacKenzie, n.d.).

It is also true that the administrator of a hospital is legally accountable for the quality of care being delivered to the patients. The reason is that the administrator is the main decision-making authority within a healthcare facility. All employees of a hospital, which includes doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff, are required to follow the directions of the administrator. Therefore, an administrator is responsible for improving patient care, as well as the performance of the medical staff.

Answer No: 3 I accept this statement because the provision of privileges and fringe benefits to licensed or board-certified physicians depends on the approval of administrators of the hospitals. All licensed or board-certified physicians have the right to obtain the privileges, however, the final decision regarding the provision of these rights depends on the policy set either by the administrator or by the medical chief officer of the hospital. Administrators make the policies to run different matters of the hospital.

They are the bodies that decide whether they should give the right of obtaining privileges to physicians or not. The provision of privileges to physicians is dependent on the policies and philosophy of the board of directors (Joson, 2003). They grant the privileges after analyzing the financial conditions of their organizations. Sometimes, they give this right to physicians, and sometimes, they limit the provision of medical staff privileges to some specific privileges. When the administrator or chief medical officer limits the provision of privileges, physicians can choose to contact the courts, which are often employed to uphold and ensure the provision of all those privileges to the physicians that a government hospital provides to their physicians.

For example, if the administration of a hospital does not provide a suitable service structure to the physicians, the physicians can contact the court to get the desired service structure. Similarly, physicians can go to court to obtain allowances and other benefits. Summing it up, I would say that obtaining the privileges is the right of all physicians working in private hospitals and they can contact the court to obtain those privileges. Answer No: 4 In the context of medical liability, the term ‘standard of care’ refers to the level of care that medical professionals need to provide to their patients.

“A standard of care is a formal diagnostic and treatment process a doctor will follow for a patient with a certain set of symptoms or a specific illness” (Torrey, 2008). Medical professionals need to provide a set level of care to the patients to meet the standard of care. The standard of care in a hospital is the same for every medical professional working in the hospital.