This case illustrates how emergency physicians find themselves with an empty toolbox and must compromise to meet their responsibilities to patients and themselves.
After the infant’s birth, the neonatologist’s first duty is to his or her patient—the newly born infant. If clinical circumstances are different than anticipated, the physician must first consider the best interests of the baby.
Family presence in the trauma bay is not entirely analogous to family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and requires a chaperone system.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(5):455-463. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.5.ecas5-1805.
A major contributor to the lack of medicines in developing countries is an intellectual property regime that allows proprietary drug companies with intellectual property monopolies to charge high prices and maximize profit.
Undocumented patients in the United States with end-stage renal disease receive “compassionate” dialysis. Such patients oscillate between being marginally well and “ill enough” to receive dialysis while clinicians wrestle with complicity in a system that both offers and withholds life-saving therapy.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E778-779. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.778.
Thoughtful design can welcome patients’ families’ roles in promoting healing. At the same time, clinicians’ need for functionality and privacy is critical. How ought these considerations be balanced in designing the spaces where patient care takes place?
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(1):73-76. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.18.1.sect1-1601.
The all-payer rate setting model of pricing combines a uniform payment method with a single rate that all private and public insurers pay for a specific service, thus improving price transparency for patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(8):770-775. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.8.pfor1-1508.