Situation Description
The experience of interacting with the healthcare system can sometimes be unpleasant, and instead of receiving the expected help, people face trouble. One example of such an experience that I am unpleasantly struck with regarding law and ethics, and often hear in the news, is patient dumping. For example, a man recently died in San Diego due to heart problems a few hours after discharge (Payton, 2023). Patient dumping implies providers’ refusal to properly discharge and provide follow-up treatment for those who do not have insurance or other options to pay for services. Most often, homeless people face such a problem, staying on the street and not receiving proper assistance for their condition.
Situation Outcome
The problem described relates to health care’s economic and social perspective – not having the money to obtain health services, patients can die on the street. The feature that stands out most about the situation is that it violates ethical and legal standards and laws, but patient dumping practices continue anyway (Payton, 2023). Such treatment of patients is unfair and cannot be tolerated since patient dumping’s outcomes are deaths and distrust of the health care system. The result could have been different if the San Diego hospital had followed established protocols for discharging homeless people, which suggests helping to find shelters. For this reason, employees of facilities that still apply such a practice need additional training on ethics and laws related to their work.
Reflection
Situations like the one described above can significantly influence attitudes toward the healthcare system and its perception. For example, the patient dumping story demonstrated how much work is needed to develop and improve the healthcare system. I need to put in more significant effort and action to ensure ethics in current healthcare. This perception encourages and motivates me to work on myself and my place of work, including improving sensitivity to such ethical and legal issues.
Reference
Payton, M. (2023). Despite state law, San Diego hospitals accused of ‘patient dumping’. NBCUniversal Media. Web.