CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

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ESSENTIALS OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE
mechanisms available in the institution. The patient has the right to be informed
of the hospital’s charges for services and available payment methods.
The following sections provide information related to ethics, organization
of the health care delivery system, and terms widely used in documenting the
meeting of medical standards established for health care facilities. Both government
and professional groups have taken measures to ensure that health
care institutions and practitioners of various medical professions are effectively
trained and monitored. In the following sections, specific training areas are also
addressed to acquaint the student with the proper information and expertise
needed to provide quality care for those in his or her care.
Legal Action against a Medical Facility or Worker
It will be helpful to understand a few legal terms associated with the medical
profession to grasp a thorough understanding of this section. A tort is a wrongful
act that is a civil matter rather than a criminal one, arising from negligent
or intentionally wrongful behavior that results in harm. A tort occurs if a person,
including a health care worker, does not meet customary, established, and
expected standards of care in a given situation. Many types of torts are possible
in medical facilities. Malpractice is the one that is most often levied against a
medical practitioner, but torts can include negligence, assault and battery, invasion
of privacy, abuse, and defamation of character, although the latter category
is rare.
A health care worker has a duty, or a moral obligation, to the patient. The
moral commitment requires action that is in the interest of the patient and not
just a condition of the mind of the medical worker. Usually, duty involves some
sort of sacrifice on the part of the worker, who is committed to act in the best
interest of the patient. A failure to act in the prescribed manner is a breach by
the health care worker of a commitment. Causation is the “causal relationship
between conduct and the result derived from that conduct.” As a consequence,
causation provides a means of connecting a manner of conduct with the resulting
harm or resultant element. Causation is only applicable where a result has been
achieved. Compensatory damages are paid to compensate the claimant if he or
she is successful in proving in court a loss, injury, or harm suffered by another’s
breach of duty.
Risk management is a health care approach in which a specialist addresses
the prevention and containment of liability by documenting critical or unusual
patient care incidents. There are university programs that prepare working professionals
in health care or law to enter the field of health care risk management
and patient safety. After completing the program, graduates will have an
understanding of general risk management techniques; standards of health care
risk management administration; federal, state, and local laws; and methods for
integrating patient safety and facility risk management into a comprehensive risk
management program.
The objective of risk management is to reduce different risks related to an
act or a failure to act to a level acceptable to the facility. It may refer to various
types of threats caused by the environment, technology, and humans. The risks
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