CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

62
ESSENTIALS OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE
the American Hospital Association will be provided in this chapter. The intention
of this form is to inform patients of their rights when they are receiving
medical care. Legal issues may arise and medical workers may be held liable if a
patient’s rights are violated.
Ethical, moral, and legal aspects of the health care system are inextricably
interwoven. Legal matters are closely related to and evolve from morals and
ethics. Ethical and moral issues are treate as interchangeable as there are many
commonalities. The material presented here depicts the inseparable components
of morals, ethics, and legalities involved in the delivery of health care. For example,
hospital documents are legal documents, and the confidentiality of patients
limits the distribution of medical documents to those treating the patient. Some
ethical standards have become law, as will be shown.
The medical worker or student should know, through appropriate education
and training, how to treat patients humanely, legally, and ethically and how to
avoid any legal entanglements, before being assigned to a clinical facility. Role
playing is a strategy often used in educational facilities to acquaint students with
situations in which they may become involved. A well-informed practitioner will
avoid many of the pitfalls such as negligence and malpractice that may lead to
litigation. An important component to be considered in the treatment of patients
is that of confidentiality and privacy of records and any other personal information
about the patient. Privacy and confidentiality of patient records are of sufficient
importance that a federal law was created to provide consistent standards
for issues dealing with handling, storage, and transmission of records to other
offices. A section is provided in this chapter to inform the student of the importance
of treating a patient and his or her records in a confidential manner.
Legal, Moral, and Ethical Concerns
Ethical practices and morality are the basis of most dealings between persons
who may be practicing medicine, operating a business, or working in the legal
system. One of these entities, that of law, cannot be separated from morals and
ethics. Law is based on and derived from both moral and ethical treatment of
our fellowman and evolved from the early history of mankind and the collective
experiences of various groups of people. In addition, most major religions have
a common basis in morals and ethics. The common origin of many of our laws
went through an evolutionary process where rules of behavior now set in legal
codes were handed down over many centuries. Laws came from common behaviors
that developed from a realization that moral and ethical treatment of others
was necessary to enable humans to coexist in a community.
The behaviors that became laws were eventually codified and served to provide
a climate where trust and a sense of security could come about for everyone,
not just the privileged class. Areas of civilization initially were clusters of persons
of similar heritage, which then became neighborhoods, and then grew into towns
with perhaps a number of neighborhoods. Eventually, larger collections of towns
became organized as states with a governing system that covered a geographic
region, and entire countries with common laws for everyone were then born out
of these collections of people with common pursuits. The legal, ethical, and moral
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