Tube

Assignment # 4 – The Feeding Tube

Sheila Bogany

HSA515

Health Care Policy, Law & Ethics

Dr. Wendy Whitner, PhD, MPH

February 27, 2011

Explain how the Patient Bill of Rights applies to this situation.

The patient must receive all information regarding the nature of their illness, the course of treatment, risks, options and prognosis, including both anticipated and unanticipated outcomes of treatment. June also has a right to know of any side effects of treatments. June should have been told what may happen without the feeding tube and what to expect once the feeding tube is inserted. According to the Patient’s Bill of Rights the patient has the right to have her health information kept confidential, with information given only to those she designated as being allowed to have her health information.

Based on the facts given in the scenario, would the patient be considered competent to decide? Explain your answer.

According to the scenario, the patient would not be considered competent to decide. According to the scenario the patient’s became combative and disoriented. According to the Patients’ Bill of Rights if a patients is competent, technically only a legally appointed guardian can make treatment decisions (Patients Rights). When this type of situations occur the physicians will look to a family member or appointed legal guardian (which in this case would most likely be her mother and farther) on an informal basis, thereby avoiding a lengthy and expensive competency hearing (Patients Rights). A patient such as June who, while temporarily incompetent, has a severe complication requiring radical therapy could be treated because her situation can be considered an emergency exception (Showalter, 2008). In this case I don’t think the ex-husband has any say so in whether the tube is inserted or not. The ex-husband doesn’t have any legal rights regarding the medical treatment of June.

Explain the primary responsibility of...