GCU HLT520 2020 August All Weeks Discussions Latest

HLT520 Legal and Ethical Principles in Health Care

Week 1 Discussion

DQ1 In this time of limited financial resources and reduced government payments for health care services, what are the ethical issues of limiting care? How much uncompensated care can hospitals absorb? Where do people with no resources go for care? What is the state's responsibility, if any, to ensure health care services? What is the community's responsibility, if any? What are the ethical considerations that should be taken into account?

DQ2 How would religious beliefs shape a patient’s health care decision making? Provide two examples that would demonstrate this.

 

HLT520 Legal and Ethical Principles in Health Care

Week 2 Discussion

DQ1Discuss the elements of an enforceable contract and apply them to a contract with a vendor to purchase a new CT scanner. What would you include in the contract? How would you confirm its validity?

DQ2 What do you see as the pros and cons of obtaining fair market value analyses on the compensation paid to physicians, especially when the market rates are benchmarked against national standards? How could this information be used in negotiating rates with physicians? What other components would you need to include in forming the contract with the provider?

 

HLT520 Legal and Ethical Principles in Health Care

Week 3 Discussion

DQ1 If a physician develops a history of disruptive behavior, belittling staff, cursing at coworkers, and being rude and curt to patients, what are the responsibilities of the medical staff, the hospital, and the other professionals involved? Why do you believe that so many staff may be reluctant to report a poorly behaving physician?

DQ2 How would you distinguish between negligence and malpractice? Provide two examples of each.

 

HLT520 Legal and Ethical Principles in Health Care

Week 4 Discussion

DQ1 Describe the elements of the Stark laws. Explain what they are designed to do, the impact of the exceptions, and whether you think they are successful in preventing unethical behavior.

DQ2 Your hospital is looking at hiring a physician for the emergency room. Someone reported that this physician receives payment from a medical imaging company for each referral he sends to them. Is this a violation of the Stark law. Explain. What steps would you take as the hospital administrator to investigate and ensure you make the best decision for your hospital?

HLT520 Legal and Ethical Principles in Health Care

Week 5 Discussion

DQ1 As a hospital administrator, you receive a call from a colleague at another hospital. Your colleague, who is a friend, informs you that he has received a demand for a stipend from the ophthalmologists who take ED calls at his hospital, and they want a sizable raise. He asks you what you pay for that type of call and suggests that you could both benefit by coming up with a standard rate of pay over which neither of you will go in response to physician demands. It could save your hospitals $300,000 to do this. What is your response, and what is the rationale for it?

DQ2 Discuss the importance of ethical business practices. Do you think that hospitals who engage in group purchasing organizations are engaging in a form of price-fixing? Justify your reasoning.

 

HLT520 Legal and Ethical Principles in Health Care

Week 6 Discussion

DQ1 Examine the concept of "employment at will" and the public policy exceptions to it. How does it fit with the issue of "wrongful discharge"? Support your claim with one or two scholarly sources.

DQ2 What do you see as the pros and cons of a unionized environment in a health care facility? How can the right to collective bargaining by employees and the mandate to provide care to patients be reconciled?

 

HLT520 Legal and Ethical Principles in Health Care

Week 7 Discussion

DQ1 Discuss the elements to use when assessing mental competency in patients. How could a patient's decision be affected in situations where the decisions do not appear to make sense?

DQ2 You need to obtain informed consent from your patient who is having an endoscopy procedure. He has a power of attorney but you are unable to obtain it. What steps would you take at this point? What are the potential legal ramifications? Outside of the legal ramifications, describe the importance of obtaining legal informed consent from patients.

 

HLT520 Legal and Ethical Principles in Health Care

Week 8 Discussion

DQ1 You suspect a nurse is diverting narcotics. You ask her patient about his pain control and he states he has not received pain medications all day. His nurse states she has medicated him and also has it charted in the patient medical record. What steps would you take to investigate this? If you found evidence the nurse has diverted, where does this get reported? What happens to the nurse?

DQ2 A colleague looked up a cousin's test results and informed you about having done so. The cousin is very sick and the family, extremely fearful about the potential diagnosis, wanted to see if your colleague could find out in advance to help the cousin's family. What would you do in this scenario? Are you obligated to report? If so, what steps would you take?