Dr. Jones has a duty to determine how the test results were lost and why, disclose this information to his patient, Mrs. Taylor, and see that she is not held responsible for the costs of rerunning the test.
At their best, good systems allow space for the practical judgment of health care professionals to achieve justice in the particular actions of their daily practice.
Patient safety is a medical ethics issue that must be addressed through health care teams’ open communication as well as through time-outs and checklists.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(9):925-932. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.9.stas1-1609.
Dr Whitney Riley Linsenmeyer joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Sarah Garwood: “Patient-Centered Approaches to Using BMI to Evaluate Gender-Affirming Surgery Eligibility.”