A patient has the right to receive timely and efficient healthcare services. If the patient is denied the identified right, the specified scenario can be viewed as a legal issue. From a legal perspective, the regular delay of the surgery in Sue’s case can be deemed as an instance of negligence on the side of the staff. Viewing the case from an ethical lens, one may define the situation as the violation of the principles of patient beneficence. Therefore, the subject matter needs to be addressed immediately by carrying out surgery to manage Sue’s humerus fracture.
Seeing that negligence is the primary issue in the discussed case, the legal risks that the healthcare agency is facing at present is being sued for levis culpa, i.e., ordinary neglect (Raveesh, Nayak, & Kumbar, 2016). In case the patient’s health deteriorates, dealing with a lawsuit for lata culpa, or gross neglect, can be viewed as the primary legal risk (Voultsos et al., 2017). In either scenario, the hospital managers will have to deal with a neglect-related legal issue.
As far as the ethical outcomes of the negligence-based practice are concerned, the failure to meet the standards of patient-centered care and causing harm to the key stakeholder is the primary ethical issue. Furthermore, similar instances of negligence in the future may lead to a negative change in the staff’s values and priorities, leading to even greater harm being caused to patients (Kumar & Batool, 2016).
The regular delay of the surgery in Sue’s case is both illegal and unethical since it represents a case of negligence and violation of the principles of patient beneficence. Therefore, the situation must be managed by rescheduling the staff’s tasks and providing the patient with the surgery. Thus, the patient’s needs will be met in accordance with the ethical and legal standards of healthcare.
References
Kumar, S., & Batool, S. (2016). Medical error became sword for innocent eyes: On shadow of negligence. Journal of Clinical Research & Bioethics, 7(5), 285-286. Web.
Raveesh, B., Nayak, R., & Kumbar, S. (2016). Preventing medico-legal issues in clinical practice. Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology, 19(5), 15-20. Web.
Voultsos, P., Casini, M., Ricci, G., Tambone, V., Midolo, E., & Spagnolo, A. G. (2017). A proposal for limited criminal liability in high-accuracy endoscopic sinus surgery. Acta Otorhinolaryngologica Italica, 37(1), 65-71. Web.