Code Black Ethical Issues

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Code Black If you have ever been to the ER for a non-life-threatening emergency, then you are aware of the long wait times associated. This is a common complaint amongst patients and many do not understand the reasons behind it. Code Black is a documentary that attempts to show the drawbacks of our current health care system by taking viewers into a public hospital. Within this film, they illustrate many problems with the current medical system, mostly to do with rules and regulations that restrict patient care. What the film lacks is an actual analysis of why these problems deprive patients of better care and, also, solutions to these problems. One of the most prevalent problems throughout the film, that stuck out to me, was the amount of …show more content…

Put in place in 2003, it was designed to protect patient privacy, informed consent, and how records can be stored and used. Although this law was created with good intentions, it has many negative effects. These negative effects were summarized in the documentary by Dr. Pomeranz, "HIPPA is trying to guarantee patient safety, but in doing so, they're killing the team and killing the relationship" (McGarry, 2013). As discussed in class, HIPPA limits communication that may save lives, and this limitation on communication is what Dr. Pomeranz is indicating as killing the team. Since violating HIPPA is a criminal offense and the rules of the law are too confusing, organizations tend to lean toward the side of caution and limit communication. This limit on communication slows research, workflow, and efficiency. Dr. Deeb Salem shared an example about a patient who underwent a cardiac transplantation and two days later the care team was informed that the donors blood revealed bacteremia. The doctors contacted the hospital who had cared for the, now-deceased, donor in an attempt to confirm the identity of bacterium so that proper antibiotics could be used. Although time was crucial for the recipient, the donor's hospital stated that providing such information would violate HIPAA, since the hospital did not have authorization from the donor (Salem, 2003). Confronting the issues with HIPPA is necessary in order to avoid situations as such and increase overall communication between medical

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