Discussiom 1: Karina
TOPIC: Summarize the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) considerations for behavioral health-related visits to healthcare facilities.
There is a moral and ethical duty to serve those that are in critical condition and need emergency care. Under common law, healthcare organizations and individuals did not have a duty to admit and care for another person, even during an emergency, however, in the 1960s the federal court recognized this as a duty. This led to the establishment of a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (Showalter, 2020). This law follows the philosophy of regarding any type of needed healthcare at the time of an emergency as a moral right which means that care must be provided even if the individual has no ability to pay. Because of this, hospitals and employees must be prepared to provide this care if their facilities are equipped to do so.
EMTALA also applies to psychiatric hospitals and emergencies related to behavioral health. Hospitals and staff are still required to fulfill their duty and comply with the law in these cases. There is confusion in terms of EMTALA obligations in behavioral health emergencies. There are also specific considerations that must be taken into account. For example: What is an appropriate medical screening for psychiatric patients, who is qualified to perform these screenings, how are these screenings different from ones that involve a patient with an injury or medical condition that also has mental health or substance abuse issues, and what are the risks of sending a psychiatric patient home (Showalter, 2020).
Determining if a patient’s condition makes them a threat to themselves or to others has significant importance in behavioral health-related visits as this makes the involuntary detention or commitment of a patient to be in the best interest of the state. This requires that a professional predicts the future dangerousness of the case but predictions have been rendered unreliable according to the American Psychiatric Association(Showalter, 2020). This makes it even more difficult to make the decision of whether they commit the patient to needed care and when they discharge the patient. Hospitals run the risk of discharging patients that then cause harm to themselves or others, involuntary committing patients to care they do not need, and releasing patients that are not dangerous but that don’t receive the needed outpatient care.
References
Center for Clinical Standards and Quality/Quality, Safety & Oversight Group. (2019, July). Frequently Asked Questions on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) and Psychiatric Hospitals. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/Downloads/QSO-19-15-EMTALA.pdf Links to an external site.
Showalter, J. S. (2020). The law of healthcare administration (9th ed.). Health Administration Press.
Discussion2 : Karol
Topic: Analyze the four philosophical principles that can guide ethical policymaking.
Four Philosophical Principles that Can Guide Ethical Policymaking
Creating policies in accordance with moral values and principles is the goal of ethical policymaking. There are four guiding philosophical ideas that policymakers ought to apply when they make moral choices. They include Care ethics, virtue ethics, deontology, and utilitarianism. These guidelines provide many approaches to ethical decision-making.
As Roby (2018) discussed, an ethical philosophy known as “care ethics” places a premium on interpersonal connections and consideration for one’s fellow human beings. The rights and needs of vulnerable groups, such as children, older people, and people with disabilities, would be emphasized under a care ethics framework. This guiding concept emphasizes the need for compassion and empathy while formulating public policy. Yet, care ethics has been accused of ignoring the needs of the larger community in favor of concentrating on a select few.
Honesty, bravery, and compassion are just a few examples of the virtuous character attributes that virtue ethics encourages. If virtue ethics governed policymakers, they would work to foster these qualities in individuals and communities. This tenet stresses the need for morally upstanding leaders and citizens (Roby, 2018). Yet, virtue ethics can be tough to put into reality since it’s not always clear which qualities must be given the most weight in public affairs.
Deontology is a “non-consequentialist ethical theory” that emphasizes the question of whether an action is morally justified or bad as a whole. Slote (2020) argues that deontologists hold that some behaviors are always right or wrong, regardless of the situation. Deontological principles would lead to policymaking that places a premium on protecting people’s rights and freedoms. Yet deontology may also lead to policies that put people’s rights ahead of society’s needs.
Utilitarianism is a moral theory that promotes doing the most significant number of beneficial things for as many individuals as possible. According to utilitarianism, the ideal policy results in the most significant amount of aggregate pleasure or well-being for the largest viable population. This notion benefits policymaking by ensuring that decisions are made with the entire population in mind (Slote, 2020). Yet utilitarianism can also lead to policies disregarding certain people’s needs to help the majority.
In conclusion, these four philosophical ideas should inform ethical policymaking. Ethical and successful policies may be crafted when policymakers consider the repercussions of their decisions on all segments of society, uphold individual rights and autonomy, place a premium on character development, and prioritize the needs of marginalized groups. To guarantee that their policies are consistent with moral principles and values, policymakers should consider them.
References
Roby, B. (2018). Virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism.https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research/292/ Links to an external site.
Slote, M. (2020). Agent-based virtue ethics. Handbuch Tugend und Tugendethik, 1-10. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-658-24467-5_24-1.pdf Links to an external site.
