Ethical and Legal Analysis of Healthcare Services Management Decisions

This report delves into the ethical and legal complexities faced by health services managers, using a case study involving a staff member's breach of patient confidentiality through social media. It examines the implications of this action through various ethical theories, including utilitarian and rights-based approaches, highlighting the importance of patient consent and the manager's role in upholding ethical standards. The report references relevant legislation, such as "The Police, and Criminal evidence Act, 1984", and emphasizes the need for strict codes of conduct to prevent inadvertent breaches of patient confidentiality in the digital age. It also provides a comprehensive overview of ethical decision-making frameworks within the healthcare context, underscoring the importance of balancing patient rights with the public interest. The report concludes by emphasizing the critical responsibility of healthcare professionals to protect confidential patient information.

APPLIED ETHICS AND LAW FOR
HEALTH SERVICES MANAGER..

Introduction
This report brings out discussion on ethical issues and its related decision-making. These
ethical issues are analysed with the help of ethical theories. From the given case study, it is
seen that there must be implication of Markkula centre for the applied ethics (Santa Clara
university, 2020). This will explore ethical issue of staff member, which is concerned
regarding the uploading the patient`s image on social media, which is directly related to
breach of the patient`s confidential document (Vallor, Green, & Raicu, 2018). A manager
jumps in between and analyses the unethical actions taken by the staff member while
breaching the patient`s confidential information. Most importantly, it is the duty of the health
professionals to deal with the inadvertent breaches while using the networking sites such as
internet forum, communication, and Facebook on personal and professional level (Miller et
al., 2019). The theories undertakes the case through five sources of ethical standards such as
utilitarian Approach, which focuses on ethical action, which are most good in some way and
harmful in other ways. It produce the greatest balance between goodness and harmfulness.
Here, exposing the pictures of patients without proper consent, which is incorrect in every
aspect of utilitarian (McLean, & Holmes, 2016).
Implications of Ethical theories
When a staff member has reported for the another member for uploading the patient`s image
through social media. I have overheard the staff member for the case. Now, as a manager, I
will undertake several theories of ethics to analyse this case and then call up a meeting to
make strict code of conduct for all the healthcare providers (Vidgen, Hindle, & Randolph,
2020). It is important to note that the disclosure of confidential information is detected as
crime, “The Police, and Criminal evidence” Act, 1984 has considered it as serious offence.
The act only provides accessibility to the police where police can provide power to access

material classifying it as medical record, and availing a warrant obtained by a circuit judge
(Vidgen, Hindle, & Randolph, 2020).
This situation can permit the liberal disclosures only when three principles are accomplished
such as patient consent, public interest people outweighing conservation of confidence and
the statutory obligations. Next theory indicates that ethical action can best protest and oblige
moral rights on the person who have suffered in exposure to social media by the healthcare
staff highlights rights approach (Tunzi, & Ventres, 2018). This ethical group suggest that
ethical action is the best respect, which can be done. This approach suggests that human
dignity is the foremost thing closely associated with the choice while living their lives. Right
approach suggest that a patient have the right to select whether he wants or wishes to get on
social media by a healthcare staff (McLean, & Holmes, 2016).

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