Essay Example on Health Professionals: Navigating Dilemmas of Medical Errors

Introduction

The health profession stands as one of the fields with sensitive professional demands. While offering their medical assistance to the sick, health practitioners can accidentally commit errors, either harmless or harmful to the health of the patient (Chamberlain et al., 2012). These occurrences leave physicians in charge of a dilemma, tone between the need to reveal it to the patients and their family, or if they should reserve the error to themselves. The sensitivity of this matter bases on the importance of human life (Henry, 2005). The occurrence of the medical error, thus ignites dense debates about the two sides of the puzzle. That is, are patients supposed to know the incident, or there is no importance even if they access the knowledge of the occurrence. While one section of scholars and medical professionals support the need to reveal such information, others oppose this idea. This paper seeks to develop a substantive position after conducting in-depth research on the existing literate about the background of the matter, the opposition, and proposition schools of thought.

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Background Information

To establish a good position about the issue, one needs to have a full understanding of the subject in terms of definition and scope. Tan (2019) defined a medical error as the inevitable adverse event that a health care provider commits while serving a patient, which does not fit into the initial schedule of the therapeutic process to the patient resulting from the mismanagement of the provisions. In some cases, such errors have the potential of causing harm to the patient, on top of the injury resulting from the condition that necessitated the patient’s admission in the health facility (Boyle et al., 2006). Other groups of scholars defined medical error as the failure of completing the initial therapeutic action plan.

Unavoidably, doctors and other health practitioners will commit some errors while on duty. There exist different ways that medical errors can occur. Rodziewicz and Hipskind's (2020) work description of medical errors included the wrong administration of prescriptions, incorrect laboratory testing, and outbreak of infections in the health facility, resulting from surgery, inappropriate environments that lead to patient fall, and in data entry or documentation tasks. The scholar added that the occurrence of these errors and failures in other health provision systems might lead to fatal impacts on the health of patients and their general life quality.

One of the perfect examples of medical errors and their effect in the US is the Texas 1999 case. According to Tan (2019), a medical doctor by profession medication errors in the nation accounts for about six percent to thirty percent of all claims of malpractice claims. Tan cited the 1999 Texas case To substantiate his opinions. In the case, a pharmacist misread the prescription of a cardiologist and administered an overdose of Plendil calcium channel blocker, which caused the patient to suffer a heart attack and die several days later due to the overdose.

Different pieces of literature indicate the existence of a relationship between medical errors and the resulting fatalities. Chamberlain et al. (2012) estimated that over ninety-eight thousand deaths occur in the United States (US) every year due to medical practitioners' errors and mistakes. In the study, the scholars added that despite recording the towering figure, it is more likely that the data is still an underestimation. This assertion results from their research revealed that physicians in charge chose not to disclose them to the patients or their families between fifty and ninety-six percent of the errors. The scholars indicated that most of the subsequent fatalities would not occur if health practitioners chose to disclose them.

In recent times, both health professionals and the general public have begun to agree about the need to disclose the errors to families and patients (Henry, 2005). This agreement emanates from the growing consensus about the ethical and legal appropriateness of the disclosure. However, the enthusiasm to expose such occurrence also has its share of challenges. Petronio et al. (2013) indicated that the difficulties arise from the traditions of the medical profession, which pauses threats, suspension, lawsuits, or even revocation of practice licenses from the health care providers who were in charge when the malpractice occurred.

Petronio et al. (2013) noted that in some cases, physicians experience reasons that compel them either to keep such information private or to disclose it to patients, putting them in a privacy dilemma. These puzzles create barriers to successfully addressing the errors and their consequences despite the existence of several interventions of handling these dilemmas, other works of literature evidence that a section of doctors shuns disclosing their professional mistakes. Wolf and Hughes (2008) credited disclosure in assisting the efforts towards improving professional practice. The two scholars assert that disclosing the errors would provide a benchmark against which future practice marks its course and ensures the mistake does not recur.

Developing the Argument

This section gathers as much information necessary to make an informed opinion about the subject matter by exploring both support arguments and counter-arguments. Below is the research about why some people will castigate the disclosure and those that would make one advocate for the initiative.

Reasons against Disclosing the Errors

The concept of disclosing medical mistakes faces several opposing views from scholars and medical professionals. This section compiles reasons with the need to accessing them against the reasons that support the disclosure.

To Maintain Public Trust in Medical Institutions

One argument against the disclosure of all medical errors orbits around the idea that such information can erode the public's trust in medical institutions (Thurman, 2001). The occurrence of any medical errors attaches to someone or some group that is supposed to bear the blame. In most cases, the health officer in charge and the facility he or she was serving take responsibility. When a doctor or the hospital in which he serves faces regular blames, it risks losing public trust. In such blames, the doctor and the health facility lose is reputation and privileges and can even lose its licensure.

McConville et al. (2017) said that informing patients about all medical errors can make them feel disillusioned with the physician. This feeling makes the patients view the medical profession and its personnel in contempt and can even adopt remedial initiatives at the expense of the physicians in charge. Doctors develop concerns over whether disclosing the errors to patients is worth risking the results of the detrimental patients’ remedial measures. Despite the desperate need to safeguard one's reputation, it is worth noting that post-disclosure patient initiatives are likely to worsen the doctor (McConville et al., 2017). In particular, everybody desires to maintain his or her livelihood at all costs. The losses, shame, and humiliation that sometimes confronts doctors make them doctors decide not to disclose the errors to patients and their families.

To Prevent Regular Litigation

A section of the opponents to the disclosure base on the possible frequent litigation cases after patients learn of the error. Regardless of whether the fault has a resulting health effect or not, due to the fear engulfing the families after discovering a medical error, they are quick to seek legal redress. Rodziewicz and Hipskind (2020) noted that even though disclosing the mistake does not reduce the health care provision malpractice, almost thirty-five percent of families end up filing against the negligence, whether it later turned out harmful or harmless to the patients. This data implies that a section of patients' facilities set themselves ready to benefit from any possible loophole during the provision of care to their colleagues.

To Prevent Patient Distress

In some cases, doctors and other health practitioners cite genuine reasons for withholding medical errors. As McConville et al. (2017) indicated, part of the training of health caregivers is to understand the effect of a given type of information on the mental capacity of patients. Scholars like Blumenthal and Squires (2015) wrote that it is excusable for physicians to withhold some information from the patients or even their families, especially if they think it can undermine the patient. Therefore, if the patient is severely depressed, it would be more harmful than of benefit if they get to learn of the medical errors. Patients who do not trust in their ability to accommodate disheartening information chose not to learn of the mistakes, and ask their physicians to keep knowledge of this type to themselves. Availing such data to the patients can make them become irrational or develop severe psychological damage (Côté, 2000). This move would undermine their ability to make appropriate decisions regarding their care.

Henry (2005) also indicated the tenability of the patients’ distress. The scholar added that although most doctors do not aim at withholding this type of information from the patients, the effects of the disclosure force them to decide otherwise. As Côté (2000) precisely indicated, since a substantial number of doctors predict that patients’ emotions might turn out to be unscientific, unpredictable, and corrupt, they end up overestimating the extent to which their clients would find revelation bothering. Also, healthcare givers mostly have the wrong perception about psychosomatic injuries that come into existence after an offensive disclosure (McConville et al., 2017). Thus, the doctors supposedly equate harm with the upset. Since most health practitioners lack comprehension of the benefits of patients' emotional condition, they end up overlooking the positive sides of revelation.

Supporting Arguments

Despite discussion in the preceding section, medical errors should be kept secret by health facilities, other parts of health professionals, scholars, and the general public campaign for the need to disclose the errors to patients and their families. This section discusses some of the reasons to help in establishing a substantive position.

It is a Requirement of Medical Professional Work Ethics

Ethically, a doctor and his or her patient have a fiduciary relationship. This nature of the connection implies that the principles of autonomy, beneficence, justice, non-maleficence, and fidelity have to stand between them. The principal concept in ethics is the autonomy of the individuals taking part in any form of contract. Henry (2005) supported the argument citing the practice of western societies that cherish the intrinsic value and inherent self-worth that comes with self-determination. According to the scholar, people's ability to make autonomous decisions and determine the path to their health care have critical roles in medical decision making. With this concept in mind, health practitioners cannot presuppose that patients do not have an interest in knowing such information independently but must consider patients' autonomy when making decisions concerning the disclosure of critical medical occurrences.