Patients Right and Responsibilities - Assignment Example

Assignment Question: Propose a list of bulleted rights and responsibilities, along with a rationale for them Solution: Patients have a number of rights and responsibilities that they need to be kept in mind. The governments across the world have provided for clear rights by law for patients and any individual who seeks medical help. These rights are mainly to ensure complete protection of the patients and the privacy also it provides the patients with rights to informed consent. The points below will highlight the rights of the patients. Also included is the responsibility of the patients which are needed to be followed to ensure better care and health for the patients themselves (. a) Rights of Patients: Rights to receive equal care, respect, compassion irrespective of age, caste, creed, gender, religion, nationality, appearance, or any kind of disability. Rights to details of the doctors, nurses and all health personnel treating or attending to them. Rights to gain all details of the proposed treatment and medication and also alternatives to the treatments. Rights to details of the expected results of the treatments, approximate amount of time for recovery and all risks and details of possible pain and measures to curb the pain. Rights to choice of treatments as available by law and assistance to make informed decisions to understand the consequences of the refusal to treatments Rights to leave hospital based on doctors advise Rights to complete confidentiality of all medical records and all communications pertaining the treatment Rights to choice of participating or withdrawal from any medical study or research with no affect on the healthcare provided Rights to complete details of the medical bills and availability of summarised bills for information Rights to details of all healthcare facilities while in the hospital and also post discharge from the hospital Rights to receive assistance for complaints or grievances b) Responsibility of Patients: Responsibility to provide complete details to the hospital about health, including all past and present hospitalizations, medical allergies, medications and any other information regarding health Responsibility to provide complete and accurate personal information whenever necessary Responsibility to provide all initial instructions and directives prior to admission Responsibility to understand the information provided by the doctors or any other member of staff, and to ask questions to ensure complete details and queries Responsibility to advice of any possible allergies or issues for the prescribed treatment Responsibility to gain complete details of the pain or any possible side effects and developing a solution for the same before starting the treatments Responsibility to keep track of all communication and be there for the meetings and the appointments with all details Responsibility of the valuables while at the hospital or even during an appointment Responsibility to follow all rules and regulation and code of conduct within the hospital premises, like the no smoking policy, visiting hours, proper treatment to staff, safety of self, as well as all surrounding you Responsibility to provide all details of insurance and to claim before the bills is generated. Assignment 2 Question: You have been asked to explain managed care to new staff members. 1. Describe the common techniques of managed care: a) Including limitations on patients b) Providers, anti-trust concerns, c) Proposed legislation to protect both patients and providers. Solution: America is facing a new increase in the health care systems. People are being treated under ‘Managed Care’ plans. Managed care refers to a number of techniques that are used to influence the clinical health of people and care providers. This is mainly to ensure that the cost, quality and access to health care services are apt for populations of covered enrolees (Kongstvedt, 2008). There are a number of techniques used in managed care. There are a number which create limitations on patients. The cost containment is one which leads to compromised quality care, and also the patient and doctor relations. The cost containment would mean, longer working hours, over load of work to doctors and staff. These lead to the doctors tending to spend lesser time with patients and aiming at meeting more number of patients. This can cause a limitation for the patients and the time that they receive from the doctors. Also if efficiency is low from the staff of the managed care then the patients would be faced with reduced services and level of effective services. The antitrust concerns are mainly the concerns that have been set down by the US legislation to help protect from unlawful restraints, discriminations in prices, monopolies and also price fixing. This is mainly to provide for discouraging monopolies and also other restrictive practices (American Optometric Association, 2009). These laws also encourage higher competition and also provide for governing of unfair trade practices (NCSL, 2009). There is a growing need for the managed care to understand the antitrust issues to ensure complete organisational participation. In regards to the proposed legislation for the protection of patients and providers there are many laws that have been developed for the access to services, providers flexibility and also report cards. There are a number of appeals and remedies related to the same as well and a number of mandates for insurance providers (University of Washington, 2009). Thus being new employees of a managed care unit, it is essential for all to gain a complete understanding of the above mentioned topics as these 2. Discuss important legal, ethical, policy implications of managed care for Tri-state Health Care, Inc., as well as politically-competent guidelines to consider when proposing new policy changes for Tri-state in the area of managed care. Solution: There are a number of legal, ethical, policy implications that need to be considered in terms of the managed care for Tri – State health Care Inc. Since the case of an AIDS patient suing the company for leak of confidential information, it is essential that the company consider all the aspects i.e. ethical, legal and policy implications for all patients to ensure that the confidential information is not leaked out. Tri State Inc. is lacking in its policies a number of governmental regulations as well. Since the company deals with confidential and sensitive data, it is essential that there is limited access to the information. The policies should be sent in a manner where the information that is available in the organisation about the patients and their details should be accessible only on a ‘need- to – know – bases’ (NCSL, 2009). This will restrict the amount of information that is accessible to all employees and will mitigate the chances of any leak of information (University of Washington, 2009). Improved policies on the use of systems and the members of staff allowed to use the systems need to also be included into the policy. Also a firewall on the systems to ensure no access to the Internet for most staff except for a few higher level staff will prove to be safe as the information can be saved from hackers (NCSL Health, 2009). These will ensure that the legal, political, and ethical standards which have been set down by the government like the JCAHO, and others will be met to. Policies create a face to the organisation and the functioning of an organisation, hence a policy which meets legal aspects of the business, as well as the ethical standards will be well received as well as more successful than other which do not keep this in mind. Also being a part of the health care sector, the need for strict attention to detail and complete confidentiality is a must. Thus policies need to be designed based on these elements. Bibliography American Optometric Association, 2009, ‘Managed Care Anti - trust Traps’, Accessed on 16th June 2009, Retrieved form http://www.aoa.org/x5709.xml Kongstvedt, P., 2008, ‘Managed Care: What It Is and How It Works’, 19th September 2008, 3rd edition, Jones & Bartlett Publishers NCSL Health, 2009, ‘Health’, Accessed on 14th June 2009, Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?tabid=160 NCSL, 2009, ‘Managed Care State Laws and Regulations, Including Consumer and Provider Protections’, March 2008, Accessed on 10th June 2009, Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/IssuesResearch/Health/ManagedCareStateLaws/tabid/14320/Default.aspx University of Washington, 2009, ‘Ethics in medicine’, Accessed on 11th June 2009, Retrieved from http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/managd1.html Read More