HLTH 8301 Week 5 Discussion: Patient Autonomy or Surrogate Decision Maker?
Patients’ rights in the United States include the right to informed consent, which means that patients must receive adequate information to make medical decisions. However, many questions can arise if a patient appears to lack the capacity to understand his or her medical condition or options.
As a healthcare administrator, it is your responsibility to educate medical staff about your facility’s policy on obtaining informed consent, reflecting state law, and how to determine whether a patient is competent. It is essential to balance the moral needs of protecting the rights of the patient with the legal and ethical obligations to breach this confidentiality in certain select situations or determine circumstances requiring a surrogate decision maker.
Medical staff should have no difficulty in following a patient’s wishes specific to health treatment when the patient is a competent adult who can articulate his or her wishes to the medical team. However, what if the medical team is unable to determine competency? How would the team assess mental competency to understand benefits and risks of the medical treatment? If the patient is not competent, how should the medical staff proceed?
Resources
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
To prepare for this Discussion:
- View the Prompt Video titled Incident in the ER: Scene 1, located in the Learning Resources.
- Reflect on the delivery of healthcare services demonstrated in the Prompt Video regarding determining competency. Reflect on the positive and negative aspects demonstrated and consider how healthcare administrators should consider these aspects when engaged in practice.
- Using the Kaltura Video function as instructed in the Kaltura User Guide, you will videotape yourself responding to the Challenge Video. To upload your media to this Discussion thread, refer to the Kaltura User GuideLinks to an external site. for information about how to upload media to the course.
By Wednesday
Post your video response to the Challenge Video, to address the following:
- Who decides on behalf of the patient if it is determined that the patient lacks competency?
- How should a surrogate decision maker proceed on behalf of a patient? How can a healthcare administrator ensure that the patient’s autonomy is ensured and competency is established?
- How do the facility’s standards and regulations affect how competency is determined?
Support your response by identifying and explaining key points and/or examples presented in the Learning Resources.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings. Consider how your colleagues’ postings relate to the information presented in the Learning Resources and to your own posting.
Refer to the Week 5 Discussion Rubric for specific grading elements and criteria. Your Instructor will use this grading rubric to assess your work.
By Friday
Respond to at least two of your colleagues’ postings in one or more of the following ways:
- Share an insight that you gained from having read your colleague’s initial post.
- Review video responses from your colleagues and provide a critique or feedback on the skills demonstrated by your colleagues.
Continue engaging in the Discussion through Sunday.
SOLUTION HLTH 8301 Week 5 Discussion: Patient Autonomy or Surrogate Decision Maker?
Response to the Challenge Video
The incident involving Mr. Hector Jimenez raises significant concerns regarding the determination of competency, patient autonomy, and surrogate decision-making. Addressing the questions posed requires a thorough understanding of healthcare ethics, laws, and policies.
Determining Competency and Decision-Making
If it is determined that a patient lacks competency, the responsibility for making decisions on behalf of the patient typically falls to a legally recognized surrogate decision-maker. This is often outlined in advance directives, living wills, or through state-specific laws (Pozgar, 2020). In the absence of such documentation, most jurisdictions recognize close family members, such as a spouse or adult child, as default surrogates. However, this process must be informed by an assessment of the patient’s capacity to make decisions, which should be documented by a qualified healthcare professional, such as a psychiatrist or neurologist (Appelbaum, 2007)….
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