Question & Answer: Analyze the concepts of patients’ rights and the overall concerns of physicians…..

(Source:emedicinehealth)

All Patients have a right to Health care,

The doctor has the duty to continue a patient’s healthcare after consenting to provide medical care unless the patient no longer requires treatment for the illness. The doctor must notify the patient and transfer care to another acceptable doctor if planning to withdraw care. The doctors may be charged with negligent abandonment for ending the relationship with the patient without appropriate referral, transfer, or discharge.

Right to Refuse Care: The Patients can refuse care, but patients with an altered mental status because of alcohol, drugs, brain injury, or medical or psychiatric illness may not be able to make a competent decision; then the patient may need to have a person legally appointed to make medical decisions. But there is a thin line on what is okay and what is not a ambiguous state.

If not treated could go as negligence, if later patient denies of any refusal. If treated and the patient recalls refusal, its again a cause for legal issue.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) is a federal law that requires anyone coming to an emergency department to be stabilized and treated, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay, but since its enactment in 1986 has remained an unfunded mandate.

The regulation is not binding yet but was mandatory and in some areas this could act as a legal deterrant.

So, there are several conflicting rights, and during difficult emergeny situations doctors are in a really conflicting position