Legal Issues

1
Legal Issues

• Caring and Communication Ch. 3

2
Ethics of Caring

• Caring (as a feeling) df concern for others
• Caring (as an action) df efforts made to support
  the well-being of others
• Caring in the context of the imaging professional
  often involves communication, but not always
• preparing your equipment so the patients visit
  is brief is not communication, but is caring when
  concern for the patient motivates you

3
Ethics of Caring

• Communication is often two way, but not always
• Being attuned to a patients feelings and
  reacting accordingly is communication
• a patient appears anxious and you speed up
• one way transfer of information about anothers
  mental states, from the patient to you

4
Ethics of Caring

• Aids to improving communication (see p60-61)
• Communications classes that address body language
  and listening skills
• Critical thinking classes that focus on
  recognizing, analyzing, and evaluating ethical
  problems
• Discuss films that illustrate caring scenarios
  (e.g., The Doctor, and House!)
• Empathy rotations that require students to become
  patients for a day
• Review patient surveys that ask about how caring
  their care was

5
Law

• Attorneys estimate that a clinicians
  communication style and attitude are factors in
  75 of malpractice lawsuits. p65
• Most frequent problems
• Inadequate explanation of diagnosis
• Inadequate explanation of treatment
• Patient feels ignored

6
Law

• Health Literacy (p63)
• General literacy (the ability to understand
  through reading) affects health literacy
• About half of the adults in the US read at or
  below 9th grade level
• Most health care materials are written at or
  above a 10th grade level
• So, imaging professionals need special skills to
  improve the chances their patients understand them

7
Law

• 6 Steps to Improve Communication (top of p66)
• Slow down
• Use plain, nonmedical language
• Use pictures when you can
• Prioritize to limit information
• Repeat the information
• Use teach back or show me technique
• Enlist others to help (family and friends)
• (I know, I know but steps 4 and 5 are combined
  in the book)
• Name five unlisted virtues of the picture above
  as it relates to communication

8
Law

• Studies show (see p66-67) that patients injured
  through negligence are not likely to file a
  lawsuit unless they are also dissatisfied with
  the care they were shown by health care
  professionals
• Make a friend of your patient