Legal and ethical implications must be considered during the practice change project implementation because they allow stakeholders to decrease the risks and develop optimal strategies for intervention. Furthermore, exploring the legislation related to healthcare and civil rights can find additional opportunities to improve the affordability and accessibility of services (Dang et al., 2021). Ethical implications must be studied to identify the challenges related to specific populations’ social status and perception of local healthcare. The issue which requires a change in the East Orange General Hospital Clinic is the impoverished beneficiaries’ tendency to skip their follow-up visits with the doctor. Indeed, the attendance significantly decreased during the last three months, and evidence-based research revealed multiple factors influencing patients’ decision-making. This paper aims to discuss legal and ethical implications that affect the practice change to address the issue of the impoverished population skipping their additional visits.
Legal implications are tied to the local legislation and policies that manage the work of healthcare organizations. Thus, addressing the impoverished populations skipping additional visits must be viewed from the law-based perspective. For instance, the Health Facility Compliance Group at the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) regulates how Medicare and Medicaid programs are implemented in the local hospitals (Ofei-Dodoo et al., 2019). Indeed, the insurance legal implication must be considered while making the services more affordable for the impoverished. A project to manage sustainable practice change should include cost optimization, and current DSHS regulations are useful for selecting the procedures that can be excluded. Furthermore, practitioners must control the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) execution to prevent its violation in terms of patient security and privacy (White et al., 2021). For instance, the strategy to enhance the communication by contacting the clients to notify them about a follow-up visit must consider avoiding personal information disclosure.
Ethical implications for providing high-quality healthcare are built on autonomy, justice, and beneficence. Decision-making for sustainable practice change should be based on the organization and providers’ willingness to offer the best service available for the broad populations (Dang et al., 2021). The problem of the impoverished people skipping their follow-up visits has implications related to that patient group’s ability to afford transportation, pay for insurance, and prioritize their health (White et al., 2021). From the justice perspective, reaching the hospital should be equally available to all citizens, and this implication resulted in the idea to offer the administration to develop free rides to the facility.
Aside from positively influencing affordability, the initiative will make healthcare more accessible to the impoverished population of East Orange. The ethical principle of beneficence enables practitioners and physicians to identify the weak points of their practice and change them toward increasing the quality of healthcare (Ofei-Dodoo et al., 2019). The implication to improve patient experience can be managed through updating visits protocols and implementing additional ways to contact clients. Ethical suggestions about autonomy are essential for the project to influence the impoverished population’s tendency of non-attendance (Sipes, 2020). The strategies that impact patients’ decision-making through education about the consequences of skipped follow-ups are more efficient than a direct call to action.
A project’s legal and ethical implications for implementing sustainable practice change can significantly improve the outcomes and make an intervention more efficient. The problem of the impoverished beneficiaries skipping their follow-up visits requires considering the recent DSHS regulations and being compliant with HIPAA to avoid violation of the population’s rights. Ethical implications that address the postulates of autonomy, justice, and beneficence enable stakeholders to limit their interventions while improving the affordability and accessibility of care.
References
Dang, D., Dearholt, S. L., Bissett, K., Ascenzi, J., & Whalen, M. (2021). Johns Hopkins evidence-based practice for nurses and healthcare professionals: Model and guidelines (4th ed.). Sigma Theta Tau International.
Ofei-Dodoo, S., Kellerman, R., Hartpence, C., Mills, K., & Manlove, E. (2019). Why patients miss scheduled outpatient appointments at urban academic residency clinics: A qualitative evaluation. Kansas Journal of Medicine, 12(3), 57. Web.
Sipes, C. (2020). Project management for the advanced practice nurse (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing.
White, K. M., Dudley-Brown, S., & Terhaar, M. F. (Eds.). (2021). Translation of evidence into nursing and healthcare (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing.