Ethic Case Study

Ethics Case Study

HCS/335

As an office assistant Jerry has certain duties and obligations to fulfill within his field of study, knowledge, and expertise. In this case as an office assistant Jerry has the authority and obligation to answer all phone calls and respond to them promptly, ethically, and efficiently. In this case the office assistant not only has administrative training but a limited amount of clinical training, the amount of clinical training that he does have does not qualify him to issue this refill. As an office assistant Jerry has the authority to call in only prescriptions or refills approved by the doctor. In this case as he is the only one in the office he should explain the situation to the patient and let him know that he will try is best to get in touch with Dr. Williams in order to have this prescription called in. He should let the patient know that it may not be possible to get it done within the time frame but that he will try and that he will call him back as soon as possible to let him know. Jerry as an assistant for Dr. Williams should have contact information for Dr. Williams, he should try calling the doctor and getting permission to call in this refill. However, if the doctor cannot be reached then he must let the patient know that refilling this prescription at this time is not possible. Under no circumstances should he call in this refill without the doctor’s consent.

If the medication requested by the patient had been to control high blood pressure it could have made a difference if the patient had been taking the medication in the past with no adverse reactions and the patient had recently been seen in the office. If the patient has recently been checked by the physician and has tolerated his blood pressure meds well in the past it is usually permissible for the assistant to call in the refill but only if this is something that Dr. Williams permits or has permitted in the past. Jerry should never do anything that Dr....