Appropriate Oversight That Legal Profession Has on Healthcare, Essay Example

Healthcare arena is one that is surrounded with ethical and legal rules that help in governing the healthcare professionals. Healthcare profession is subject to most scrutiny and strongest ethical practices because the lives of many are at stake and the exposure or vulnerability of many individuals that receive care within the industry. Therefore, a very strict oversight is needed in healthcare (Wilson, 2000).

In oversight, the legal profession must have a given level of oversight in healthcare arena to protect the patients who receive healthcare under the hands of healthcare professionals. Legal officers involved in providing oversight must ensure that they do not interfere with smooth running of healthcare facilities or interfere with healthcare profession (Studdert, and Brennan, 2001). For instance, the patients must be protected against malpractice. If a medical practitioner, hospital, healthcare professional makes a mistake, it potentially affects the patient’s safety and finances. When this occurs, the legal procedures or legal action is filed against the healthcare professional to compensate the patient (Wilson, 2000).

Legal professions can oversight over protection of the privacy of the patients by hospitals and healthcare professional. A great deal of information concerning the patient is provided at healthcare clinics or hospitals so that they can receive appropriate medical care. This information is personal and need to be protected by healthcare professionals in case they fail to do so then legal action can be taken against them (Wilson, 2000). The federal regulation HIPAA Health insurance portability and accountability act is the one, which is responsible for overseeing that reasonable care of patient’s information is kept private (Weiler et al., 2001). Legal profession should as well oversight medical negligence so that incase a medical professional neglects duty or provides substandard care is held accountable by the court of law.

The institute of medicine (IOM) of national academy of sciences in 2000 provided a report a shocking revealing that errors in healthcare due to negligence and malpractice were eighth cause of death in USA (Weiler et al., 2001). This report triggered legal society to engage on oversight healthcare profession to protect the patients and live. The level of oversight should be strict and of high scrutiny. In addition, in case any professional is discovered to have error willingly, prosecution must be staged immediately. This will help healthcare administrators to ensure that each professional carried his/her roles effectively.

Reference

Wilson, J.A. (2000), ‘Medical Errors: How Should Medical Boards Respond’, 88 Journal of Medical Licensure and Discipline No. 2 76, 78.

Weiler et al., (2001): A Measure of Malpractice (Cambridge, Harvard University Press,

Studdert, D.M., andBrennan, T.A..(2001). ‘Toward a Workable Model of “No-Fault” Compensation for Medical Injury in the United States’, 27 American Journal of Law and Medicine p. 225.