A News Story That Describes a Breach of Healthcare Ethics
Overview of the Situation and Parties Involved
A case of disability-based discrimination occurred in the NYU Langone Hospital. A deaf patient, Aneta Brodski, claimed that she was denied a sign language interpreter while being in labor (Saadah, 2023). She stated that the hospital had refused to provide an interpreting service to her, and, as a result, she struggled to understand the medical procedures and childcare instructions given to her. It is worth mentioning that the hospital has already been accused of disability discrimination previously.
Ethical Standards and Identified Violations
My ethical standard is that healthcare should be provided equally to all patients regardless of their physical or mental abilities. This means that they deserve to have full knowledge of the medical procedures that they are going through and the instructions that they are receiving (VanPuymbrouck et al., 2020). Moreover, the law requires healthcare facilities to provide deaf patients with an ASL interpreter to ensure proper communication (Judson et al., 2023). In this case, medical knowledge was not offered to this woman due to the absence of a sign language interpreter. All patients deserve to be given an opportunity to communicate with the healthcare staff, which Aneta Brodski was denied in this case.
Proposed Response and Supporting Evidence
If this situation occurred in my facility, I would address the members of the staff who are responsible for ensuring that people with disabilities receive proper care and can communicate with the providers. Krnjacki et al. (2018) claim that disability-based discrimination can have a negative impact on health outcomes in patients. In this case, the woman’s or the child’s life and health could have been endangered due to the communication barrier.
Therefore, I would fight to change the hospital policy so that ASL interpreters are always available to those who need them. Moreover, the Bible states that all people, non-disabled or disabled, are created by him and therefore deserve to be treated equally. “Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Exodus 4:11). Healthcare providers must strive to eliminate all possible barriers when working with disabled patients.
References
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). ESV Online. Web.
Judson, K., Harrison, C. & Albright, T. (2023). Law & ethics for health professions (10th ed.). McGraw Hill.
Krnjacki, L., Priest, N., Aitken, Z., Emerson, E., Llewellyn, G., King, T. & Kavanagh, A. (2018). Disability-based discrimination and health: findings from an Australian-based population study. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 42(2), 172-174. Web.
Saadah, Y. (2023). NYU Langone facing disability discrimination lawsuit. Washington Square News. Web.
VanPuymbrouck, L., Friedman, C., & Feldner, H. (2020). Explicit and implicit disability attitudes of healthcare providers. Rehabilitation Psychology, 65(2), 101–112. Web.