Legal Aspects of Health Care Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Legal Aspects of Health Care - Case Study ExampleDr. Andrews (doctor) owed the duty to Bobby with visit to treatment of his left hand (amputation). He amputated the wrong hand, thus violating his duty which also led to Bobbys loss. In addition to elements of negligence, the action by Dr. Andrews is res ipsa loquitur (that is, it speaks for itself). So there understructure be no cardinal opinions that the doctor committed negligence while treating Bobby and can be held liable to pay the damages.The actions of Nurse Williams at City General Hospitals can be reviewed using EMTALA (Federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act). EMTALA was passed in 1986 to prevent hospitals from refusing to treat a patient coming to their requisite room on grounds of non having enough money or insurance to pay for the treatment. The Act places two main obligations on hospitals (Lafferty, 2000)2. If it can be established that the patients civilize is in fact, an emergency the hospital must take steps to stabilise the condition before the patient can be asked to contact any other hospital for detailed treatment.In the given case, a screening examination was not conducted to determine the severity of wounds. Although, Nurse Williams attended Bobby straight off and put towels on his wound, probably to stop the flow of blood and may be this would be presented by the hospital in defense. Yet there is no evidence that any screening examination was carried break through to ascertain if the condition can be classified as emergency and any attempt to stabilize the emergency condition other than above which can hardly be classified as an attempt to stabilize Bobbys condition. The delay thus caused, resulted in deteriora36tion of the injury, which ultimately resulted in amputation. Bobby and his parents can sue