Medical Error Disclosure: Ethical Dilemma Essay

Despite the impressive breakthrough that medicine has witnessed over the 20^th–21^st centuries and especially in the past few decades (Gallagher et al. 1752), the possibility of a medical error remains a topical issue (Hannawa et al. 320). Coupled with the non-disclosure policies of a hospital, the issue, when revealed to a provider of the patient or any other person concerned, often poses a dilemma. Particularly, the need to warn the patient and the likelihood of legal repercussions, including a lawsuit (Ghalandarpoorattar et al. 2), which the patient is enabled to file because of the poor service quality, deserve to be brought up.Medical Error Disclosure: Ethical Dilemma Essay

Justification

The topic in question was chosen due to the obvious conflict between the interests of the patient and the population, in general, which medical ethics supposedly protects, and the interests of the provider, who is threatened by legal ramifications in the case in point (Raemer et al. 3). In other words, the identified inconsistency between the rights of an individual and the concerns of the hospital staff needs to be addressed.Medical Error Disclosure: Ethical Dilemma Essay

On a larger scale, the specified issue affects the society, as the contemporary information technology gives ample opportunities for whistleblowing and exposing the lack of social justice in the current U.S. healthcare system. Moreover, the threats that the people shedding light on medical errors are subjected to and the choices that they are forced to make begs the question whether the current concept of information management concerning medical errors can be viewed as destructive to the very fabric of the U.S. society (Adwok and Kearns 31).