scholarly journals The ethics of practicing defensive medicine in Jordan: a diagnostic study

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qosay A. E. Al-Balas ◽  
Hassan A. E. Al-Balas
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Health ◽  
Medical Malpractice ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Defensive Medicine ◽  
Legal Responsibility ◽  
Diagnostic Study ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Malpractice Law ◽  
Physician Relationship

Abstract Background Defensive medicine (DM) practice refers to the ordering or prescription of unnecessary treatments or tests while avoiding risky procedures for critically ill patients with the aim to alleviate the physician’s legal responsibility and preserve reputation. Although DM practice is recognized, its dimensions are still uncertain. The subject has been highly investigated in developed countries, but unfortunately, many developing countries are unable to investigate it properly. DM has many serious ramifications, exemplified by the increase in treatment costs for patients and health systems, patients’ exposure to risks, and negative effects on the psychological health of both health providers and recipients. Ultimately, the most serious consequence is the ethical consequences. Methods This work is based on a review of the literature related to DM worldwide and a comparison with the available knowledge found in Jordan. It is qualitative with a descriptive nature, aiming to diagnose the current DM practice in Jordan. Results This is the first published article that discusses DM in Jordan by diagnosing its ethical and economic consequences for the health system as well as for patients. Despite the knowledge of the reasons that support its practice, little is being done to solve this issue. The absence of agreeable medical malpractice law, the dearth of unified medical protocols, the overwhelming pressure imposed by patients on medical staff, and the deteriorating patient-physician relationship are some of the causes of DM practice. Surely, the solution to these issues is to focus on fortifying the ethical and humanitarian aspects on the side of both the physician and the patient to ensure positive collaboration. The ethical aim of the physician to treat the patient faithfully and do what is possible to help combined with the appreciation of the physician’s efforts and the choice to not take advantage of the physician through litigation could be the most reasonable solution in the near future. Conclusion Jordan is suffering from DM due to the limited financial expenditure on the health sector and the impracticality of medical malpractice law. The authors highlight that the cardinal step in solving this dilemma is restoring the ethical dimension of the patient-physician relationship.

scholarly journals DEFENSIVE MEDICINE AS A RESULT OF MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE : A BRIEF OVERVIEW

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Rozlinda Mohamed Fadzil ◽  
Asma Hakimah Abd Halim ◽  
Ain Alya Ariffin
Keyword(s):  
Medical Records ◽  
Medical Malpractice ◽  
Insurance Premium ◽  
Defensive Medicine ◽  
Medical Negligence ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Malpractice Law ◽  
Access To Medical Care ◽  
Negligence Law

Medical negligence is a topic in tort law which has been widely discussed as good, affordable healthcare, is greatly related to a nation’s proof of its valiant efforts to attain a developed nation from a developing status by providing state of the art health care available and affordable, to all levels of society. As a penalty in medical negligence, damages are met out to punish errant members of the medical fraternity by way of legal judgements in a court of law. In some circumstances members of the medical fraternity may also have their medical licenses suspended or revoked. Annually, medical negligence’s claim rates are inherently high and are expected to rise in tandem with patients’ awareness of their medical rights. Complication arises when the plaintiff in a medical negligence law suit face difficulties in trying to prove that the negligence really did occur. In obtaining access to medical records after a purported civil malpractice accusation, obstruction of justice is rife. They arise when blurred lines cross between obligation of doctor-patient confidentiality and the need to disclose patient’s medical records in order to securely obtain accurate sworn testimony of other medical practitioners. It is on the shoulders of the plaintiff, which in most medical malpractice law suits, rests on the patient (patients to the defendant doctors), to prove on a balance of probabilities that the breach of the duty of care did occur and from that breach, negligence had emerged, bringing about the claimed harm resulting in inherent damages suffered. High cost of litigation is also a common effect in medical malpractice law suits. This inevitably raises the insurance premium costs of all medical professionals, in general. These factors serve as impediments towards the plaintiff in obtaining justice. Hence, this paper will try to analyse the causes that has led to some of these problems. Also what will be the undesired effect caused by the difficulties in trying to prove that a medical malpractice has indeed occurred? The initial hypothesis to the matter is that it will cause negative effects to the livelihood of a patient’s life and seriously hider access to medical care. This paper will however only be focusing on one popular but ill-favouredeffect that is greatly deliberated on when medical negligence is discussed, which is defensive medicine. Defensive medicine is actually a reaction culminating from the fear of medical malpractice lawsuits by medical practitioners. Fear of facing or being taken action upon, has caused them to take necessary safe steps which is to practice defensive medicine to avoid such risk.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Medical Malpractice System and Options for Reform

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Medical Malpractice ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Healthcare Spending ◽  
The United States ◽  
Defensive Medicine ◽  
Cost Of Health Care ◽  
Malpractice Law ◽  
Patient Health ◽  
Malpractice Liability ◽  
The U.S

The U.S. medical malpractice liability system has two principal objectives: to compensate patients who are injured through the negligence of healthcare providers and to deter providers from practicing negligently. In practice, however, the system is slow and costly to administer. It both fails to compensate patients who have suffered from bad medical care and compensates those who haven't. According to opinion surveys of physicians, the system creates incentives to undertake cost-ineffective treatments based on fear of legal liability—to practice “defensive medicine.” The failures of the liability system and the high cost of health care in the United States have led to an important debate over tort policy. How well does malpractice law achieve its intended goals? How large of a problem is defensive medicine and can reforms to malpractice law reduce its impact on healthcare spending? The flaws of the existing system have led a number of states to change their laws in a way that would reduce malpractice liability—to adopt “tort reforms.” Evidence from several studies suggests that wisely chosen reforms have the potential to reduce healthcare spending significantly with no adverse impact on patient health outcomes.

Arzthaftungsrecht/Medical Malpractice Law

1982 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 704
Author(s):  
John G. Fleming ◽  
Dieter Giesen
Keyword(s):  
Medical Malpractice ◽  
Malpractice Law

The Decision-Analytic Approach to Medical Malpractice Law

1984 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Bursztajn ◽  
Robert M. Hamm ◽  
Thomas G. Gutheil ◽  
Archie Brodsky
Keyword(s):  
Medical Malpractice ◽  
Analytic Approach ◽  
Malpractice Law

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on community lifelines

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naeem Abas ◽  
Esmat Kalair ◽  
Saad Dilshad ◽  
Nasrullah Khan
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
World Population ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Essential Services ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe authors present the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on community lifelines. The state machinery has several departments to secure essential lifelines during disasters and epidemics. Many countries have formed national disaster management authorities to deal with manmade and natural disasters. Typical lifelines include food, water, safety and security, continuity of services, medicines and healthcare equipment, gas, oil and electricity supplies, telecommunication services, transportation means and education system. Supply chain systems are often affected by disasters, which should have alternative sources and routes. Doctors, nurses and medics are front-line soldiers against diseases during pandemics.Design/methodology/approachThe COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how much we all are connected yet unprepared for natural disasters. Political leaders prioritize infrastructures, education but overlook the health sector. During the recent pandemic, developed countries faced more mortalities, fatalities and casualties than developing countries. This work surveys the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health, energy, environment, industry, education and food supply lines.FindingsThe COVID-19 pandemic caused 7% reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during global lockdowns. In addition, COVID-19 has affected social fabric, behaviors, cultures and official routines. Around 2.84 bn doses have been administrated, with approximately 806 m people (10.3% of the world population) are fully vaccinated around the world to date. Most developed vaccines are being evaluated for new variants like alpha, beta, gamma, epsilons and delta first detected in the UK, South Africa, Brazil, USA and India. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all sectors in society, yet this paper critically reviews the impact of COVID-19 on health and energy lifelines.Practical implicationsThis paper critically reviews the health and energy lifelines during pandemic COVID-19 and explains how these essential services were interrupted.Originality/valueThis paper critically reviews the health and energy lifelines during pandemic COVID-19 and explains how these essential services were interrupted.

scholarly journals Barriers to Knowledge Management in the Health Sector of Pakistan

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jawad Karamat ◽  
Tong Shurong ◽  
Naveed Ahmad ◽  
Abdul Waheed ◽  
Shahbaz Khan
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Matrix Multiplication ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Healthcare Industry ◽  
Sustainable Competitive Advantage ◽  
Interpretive Structural Modeling ◽  
Knowledge Assets ◽  
Effective Implementation

Knowledge management (KM) is the source for creating a sustainable competitive advantage, and it helps the organizations to retain, develop, organize and utilize their knowledge. Due to globalization, the organizations must maintain their knowledge assets to survive. Many organizations have realized the potential of KM and are applying it. Since the healthcare industry is growing significantly, it is continuously generating a wealth of knowledge. This knowledge can be recorded, communicated and used by many health care professionals with the help of KM. There is a wealth of research on KM in healthcare of developed countries, but very few studies regarding KM implementation can be found in developing countries i.e., Pakistan. Pakistan is now looking towards the implementation of KM; it is in its initial stages. The implementation of KM in the healthcare of Pakistan is affected by different barriers. In this study, the barriers will be identified and analyzed. An interrelationship between the barriers will be determined, and how the different barriers support each other (driving power), and how they influence each other (dependence power). The results of interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and MICMAC (Matrice d’Impacts croises-multipication appliqué an classment i.e., cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification) approach show that lack of support from top management, insufficient strategic planning and lack of support from organizational structure are the main barriers to KM adoption in the healthcare of Pakistan. This study provides a solution in determining the main barriers that need to be solved first, and to ensure effective implementation of KM in the healthcare of Pakistan.

scholarly journals Benefits and Risks of Aquaculture Foods in Primary Health Care: A Mini-Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.M. Tiamiyu ◽  
I.A. Adesina
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Primary Health Care ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Aquaculture Industry ◽  
Important Health ◽  
The Right

Primary Health Care (PHC) is expected to serve as a basis for the country's health sector, of which it is the primary responsibility and priority, as well as the community's overall collective and economic prosperity. Promotion of food supply and proper nutrition are among eight elements of PHC. Protein deficiency is one of the most important health concerns in some parts of the world. A huge numbers of malnourished or hungry people have been reported particularly in the less developed countries. Advantages of aquaculture in nutrition are varied. However, there are some zoonotic microbial illnesses occurred due to consumption of infected seafood. Some of these challenges will be cor- rected by good aquaculture practices. With the right reforms in the aquaculture industry, progress can be made toward solving some of the challenges facing PHC delivery. In this mini-review, the benefits and risks of aquaculture foods in PHC are briefly discussed.

Minimising medical litigation: a review of key tort and legal reforms

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Tan
Keyword(s):  
Medical Malpractice ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
The Us ◽  
Tort System ◽  
Medical Litigation ◽  
Tort Reforms ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

The traditional tort system in medical malpractice is increasingly perceived as being incapable of addressing the mismatch between claims and negligent injuries. Tort reforms have been introduced in various developed countries in an attempt to bring about greater fairness and economic sustainability in the compensation of medical injuries and to reduce the overall rate of medical litigation. This paper reviews the key tort reforms that have been used in various countries, notably the US and the UK, and discusses the arguments that had been put forth by advocates and opponents of such reforms. The impact of these tort reforms, where studied and available, is also reviewed and discussed in the paper.

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