Legalities of Medication Error Disclosure

LEGALITIES OF MEDICATION ERROR DISCLOSURE
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The ethical and legal implications of disclosure and nondisclosure of medical error in Georgia.
All medical professionals have a multilayered ethical duty to admit mistakes to the patients. The American Medical Association Principles of Medical Ethics as cited by CITATION Rid03 \l 1033 (Riddick, 2003) state that ‘A physician shall uphold the standards of professionalism, be honest in all professional interactions.’ According to CITATION AMA11 \l 1033 (AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, 2011), ‘Situations occasionally occur in which a patient suffers significant medical complications that may have resulted from the physician’s mistake or judgment. In these situations, the physician is ethically required to inform the patient of all the facts necessary to ensure understanding of what has occurred.’ Thus, in situations where there is an apparent unintentional medical error the nurse is ethically required to disclose the error to the patient and the healthcare organization in accordance with the laid out medical error reporting framework. Most healthcare providers have medical error reporting framework, and the nurse must promptly refer to the guide. It must be reported immediately, and the physician must act in the best interest of the patient because that is their ethical obligation. If no medical error reporting framework is instituted with the healthcare organization, the nurse should apologize to the patient and notify the administration. It is advised and recommended that the nurse apologizes but NOT admit guilt although the law can protect them because of the complexity of legal issues over medical errors. Thus, physicians are also ethically obligated to disclose the medical error to the patient laying out all facts necessary to prevent further escalation of the issue and to seek cooperation from the patient to initiate measures to rectify the mistake.
Georgia passed a law to protect medical practitioners if they apologize to their patients. The is protected by ‘apology Statue’ in Georgia laws such that the patient’s defense cannot use the apology as evidence of an admission of guilt. CITATION GAC14 \l 1033 (GA Code § 24-4-416, 2014), ‘In any claim or civil proceeding brought by or on behalf of a patient allegedly experiencing an unanticipated outcome of medical care, any and all statements, affirmations, gestures, activities, or conduct expressing regret, apology, sympathy, commiseration, condolence, compassion, mistake, error, or a general sense of benevolence which is made by a health care provider or an employee or agent of a health care provider to the patient, a relative of the patient, or a representative of the patient and which relates to the unanticipated outcome shall be inadmissible as evidence and shall not constitute an admission of liability or an admission against interest.’ Thus, the medical professionals are protected by this law and encouraged to do full disclosure in the best interest of the patient.
What I would do like the advanced practice nurse in this scenario
First, stop the medical error immediately to a...