Medical Law and Ethics (2nd Edition)

This overview of medical law and ethics is written in straightforward language for non-lawyer healthcare professionals who must be able to cope with multiple legal and ethical issues they encounter while working in a variety of settings--e.g., the medical office, hospitals, clinics, and skilled nursing facilities. It is designed to help them better understand their ethical obligation to themselves, their patients, and their employer. New to this edition are: Changes in Contract Law; Hiring Practices such as personnel policy manual, interview process, legal implications, sexual harassment, discrimination issues relating to selecting employees, incompetent and dishonest colleagues; Expanded coverage of Privacy Law and confidentiality - to cover more on confidentiality, HIPAA and other laws affecting the disclosure of personal information; Expanded coverage of Consent - to include more about informed and uninformed consent, problems when implementing consent, the right to refuse treatment. Also discussed are: Physician's Orders: what to do when the health care worker disagrees with the orders, what orders can be carried out with or without a written physician's orders; Malpractice Avoidance; and Truth-telling as in cases of patients who do not want to be told their diagnosis or families who do not wish to have the patient told. New to the End of Chapter activities include: Expanded “Web Hunt” exercises; Chapter Review fill-in-the-blank exercises to each chapter; and More Case Studies. For those in the allied health field in a variety of settings such as the medical office, hospitals, clinics, and skilled nursing facilities.