Overview of Legal and Ethical Issues in Health Care - Essay Example

Legal Matters in Nursing Medical Legality In relation to practicing as a medical professional in a health care facility, criminal law pertains to the offenses or wrongs against a patient, property or society. This can lead to a health care practitioner going to jail for the wrong doing. The most common offenses under the criminal law entail practicing in a medical care occupation without a valid license (Follin & Springhouse Corporation, 2004). The other instances of criminal laws consist of wrong use of narcotics, murder or theft.

Alternatively, Civil law deals with the lawful relationships between the patient and the medical practitioner. The most prevalent cases of civil law may comprise of negligence, physical attack, battery and informed consent (Follin & Springhouse Corporation, 2004). The criminal and civil laws govern the relationship between patients and doctors in order to make it professional and trustworthy. This implies that they spell out the actions against the offenders to avoid breach and negligence. The patients’ Bill of Rights concerns the privileges guaranteed to new applicants of medical insurance cover.

It guarantees the patients’ information, fair conduct and independence over medical decisions among others. This implies that a patient has the right to access correct and simple information about his or her health plan (Shapiro, 2009). As a result, a patient who does not understand another language or experiences a mental disability should receive assistance in order to make an informed medical decision. The Bill also provides for the fair treatment in which the patient is advised on the best options to take.

In this regard, a patient should ask about the benefits and side effects of any treatment to be administered. Under the Bill, patients have a right to respect and non-discrimination by showing and receiving considerate and courteous care from medical practitioners and family members (Shapiro, 2009). The other important part of the Bill is the right to privacy to consult doctors or access medical records. However, in cases of complaints or appeals, patients should have a fast, reasonable and objective assessment against a health institution, doctors or personnel.

HIPAA laws affect the Patients Bill of Rights because it covers both long-term and new applicants of the medical cover (Shapiro, 2009). However, it only deals with the privacy of patients concerning their health records, decisions and disclosures. This makes it tricky to implement the other details provided for in the Patients’ Bill of rights. As a result, the health practitioners feel that the laws only protect the patients without considering their profession and abuses from other quarters.

The HIPAA laws allow for the transferability and security of medical report, but does not stipulate the penalties if the patients reveal their information to third parties. It is apparent that the two sets of laws do not contain separate provisions (Shapiro, 2009). This is because the laws focus on the comfort of the patients and medical information regardless of the decisions taken. The Patients’ Bill of rights is an improvement of the HIPAA, which makes it confusing on certain matters such as failures in technology.

This is because technological breakdowns may expose confidential information to other unauthorized persons who might gain access to them.ReferencesFollin, S. A., & Springhouse Corporation. (2004). Nurses legal handbook. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.Shapiro, M. (2009). HMOs and the patients bill of rights. Freedom, Calif: Crossing Press.