Ethical Issues Essay. Management and Health Care Assignment.

Ethical Issues
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Ethical Issues
In 2007, Saint Margaret Mercy Hospital in Dyer, Indiana, experienced a flood within the hospital's vicinity, which forced the staff to evacuate some of the patients (Renderman, 2008). The seventy patients evacuated were dependent on patients with psychological disabilities, which prevented them from caring for themselves. According to Renderman (2008), the patients’ charts showed that they had severe depression, suicide risks, lack of proper medication, and high anxiety levels. Based on the situation, things that would make the staff and the first responders that evacuating the patient are necessary included the patients' psychological conditions and the staff’s ethical consideration. As noted, the 70 dependent patients had severe depression and high risks of committing suicide. Ideally, these patients could not evacuate themselves, and due to the situation, their psychological condition would lead them to one option: - death. Most of them would be at high risk of voluntarily ending their lives to reduce the pain and pressure caused by floods.
Ethical standards would also lead the staff and the emergency response team to decide that evacuating patients is necessary. The ethical dilemma that may occur in this scenario is determining the patients to evacuate first. In most cases, nurses consider utilitarianism while evacuating patients. Utilitarianism is a theory in ethics that states that actions are right if they benefit the majority (Jones, 2013). However, in this case, the staff may act irrationally if they apply utilitarianism while evacuating the patients. According to Jones (2013), a person acts irrationally when their actions lead to pain, suffering, death, or loss of pleasure to others. Patients are a dependent population, and for them to be safe during an emergency, they need the assistance of the clinical staff. In the case of St. Margaret Mercy Hospital, the staff should consider first those at risk of death, pan-disability, suffering, and loss of pleasure.
The patients evacuated would be transferred to the nearby hospitals within the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services family, including St. James Hospital, St Francis Health Services family, a Franciscan facility in Munster, Health Centres in Chicago Heights, and the Hammond campus of Saint, Margaret Mercy (Renderman, 2008). These healthcare facilities would act as the best evacuation shelters because they are close to St. Margaret Mercy Hospital. The facilities also offer the same services as St. Margaret Mercy and have adequate resources to accommodate the evacuated patients (Renderman, 2008). The decision to evacuate these patients would mainly be based on the accessibility. That is to say; patients would be transferred to hospitals where their loved ones could reach them.
The patients and their medications would be tra...