Healthcare Administration

Healthcare administration
Healthcare administration
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Healthcare administration
Case study
The hospital has no excuse to have detained Mr. Nathan whether in an office or hospital against
his will even if Nathan was sick. Expert agree that the patients have the right to opt not for
treatment and forcing them to accept the treatment against their will the physicians will be
interfering with their rights(Chlan et al., 2013). Patients and doctors should always operate under
the assumption that it is against the law to hold Mr. Nathan against his will (Kowalenko et al.,
2012). But also there are exceptions where Mr. Nathan would have been denied his right to
refuse the treatment according to Allan Meisel a Bioethics and professor of law at the University
Of Pittsburgh School Of Law (Kowalenko et al., 2012). He states that it is unreasonable holding
a patients against their will and says this is civil wrong of false imprisonment.
The physician or the hospital in such scenario will be forced to show that there was a legitimate
reason for doing so. For instance, according to Meisel if Mr. Nathan pose a danger to himself or
those around him, or he is mentally incompetent or have no capacity to make his own decision as
a result of intoxication by either alcohol or drugs the hospital has the right to detain him(Speroni,
Fitch, Dawson, Dugan & Atherton, 2014). Meisel add that, the physical may be used to Mr.
Nathan in cases where there is extreme circumstances but should not amount to injuring someone
as Mr. Nathan claims.
Also, simply coercing, or delaying, or blocking a doorway to make the patient stay with no
justification can be termed as false imprisonment when it comes to competent patient. Experts
states that, If the hospital was unsuccessful in persuading Mr. Nathan to stay for treatment to
convince him to talk to a Champlain or counselor they should have the protocol to call on states’
authorities to help(Waddington, Badger & Bull, 2012). If this does not work the hospital can
follow the states’ guidelines which allow emergency admissions of patients without their
consent. Expert recommends that, to protect against legal risks physicians should document in
the hospital administrative and medical records the patients’ discharge request (Speroni, Fitch,
Dawson, Dugan & Atherton, 2014). This can be asking patients to sign a release form that
indicate they are refusing treatment or leaving despite contrary medical advice (Chlan et al.,
2013). This is for the purposes of getting informed consent and if the case of this case study Mr.
Nathan fails to sign it is even safer for the physician and the hospital.