PA 250 - Legal Issues in Health Care

*Paralegal Elective - not required for a Paralegal degree.  Course is designed for Health Science Students.

Course Outcomes
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• develop a definition for ethical behavior;
• clarify the concept of medical ethics;
• distinguish between rights and responsibilities of health care workers;
• distinguish between individual and professional ethics;
• compare the utility of various ethical theories and theory tests to medical ethics;
• describe the ethical principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence and beneficence, and provide examples of same within various health care situations;
• distinguish between legal and ethical issues and provide examples where the two may conflict;
• provide arguments to support a duty of veracity, i.e., a duty to tell the truth and not to lie or to deceive others;
• identify the rationale and rules for confidentiality and privacy within the health care delivery system;
• identify the rationale and rules fidelity issues within the health care delivery system;
• discuss the salient issues identified in “A Patient’s Bill of Rights” (American Hospital Association, 1973) or other codes of ethics;
• identify the need for distinctions between various health professions, i.e., scopes of practice;
• discuss the impacts of the relationships between various professional groups and agencies in the health care delivery system, i.e., physical relationships, research hospitals and medical schools;
• develop a working definition of justice;
• distinguish between a civil and a criminal wrong;
• define common, constitutional and statute law;
• define tort law and distinguish between intentional torts and negligence;
• describe the “reasonable person” rule;
• describe circumstances where one professional health care person would be held to a different standard of care than another health care worker, i.e., nurse vs. physician;
• list the essential components of a negligent act;
• define and describe comparative negligence;
• describe the doctrine of “Res Ipsa Loquitur”;
• provide examples of intentional torts in health care delivery systems;
• describe the concept of informed consent;
• discuss problems associated with minors and incompetents to the concept of informed consent;
• list standards of conduct which protect a patient’s right to privacy;
• discuss situations in which patient information may be disclosed;
• describe techniques to limit access to patient information, i.e., computerized patient’s records;
• list and describe practices to follow to minimize the potential of a malpractice suit;
• identify limitations of liability insurance coverage provided by an employer or insurance company and identify actions that may invalidate coverage; and
• using a case study approach, evaluate the legal and ethical issues in the cases provided.