Medical, Legal, and Ethical Issues

Immediate care or Tx.

The boundaries of care you are permitted to provide for the pt. as defined by law.

Precise and detailed plans for a regimen of therapy.

Local protocols, usually pertaining to a particular service or area.

Accepted levels of medical care expected by reason of training and profession; determined by legal or professional peer organizations so that pt. are not exposed to unnecessary risk or harm.

A serious situation, such as injury or illness, that threatens the life or welfare of a person or group of people and requires immediate intervention.

A process in which a person, an institution, or a program is evaluated and recognized as meeting certain predetermined standards to provide safe and ethical care.

The process by which a government agency, such as a state medical board, grants permission to an individual who meets established qualifications to engage in the profession or occupation.

A medicolegal term relating to certain personnel who by statute or by function have a responsibility to provide care.

Unilateral termination of care by the AEMT the pt. consent and making provisions for transfering care to another health care professional skills at the same level or higher.

Failure to provide the same care that a person similar training would provide under similar circumstances.

Name the four factors that must be evident for negligence to apply.

When a person who has a duty abuses it and causes harm to another individual, the AEMT, the agency, and/or the medical director may be sued for negligence.

A theroy that may be used when the conduct of the person being sued is alleged to have occured in clear violation of a statute.

A wrongful act that give rise to a civil suit.

Basing current action on lessions, rules, guidelines derived from previous similar experiences.

Unlawfully placing a pt. in fear of bodily harm.

Touching a pt. or providing emergency care consent.

The seizing, confining, abducting, or carrying away of a person by force, including transporting a competent adult for medical Tx his or her consent.

The confinement of a person legal authority or the person's consent.

Statutory provisions enacted by many states to protect citizens from liability for errors and omissions when giving good faith emergency medical care, unless there is wanton, gross, or willful negligence or acceptance of remuneration.

Conduct that constitutes a willfull or reckless disregard for a duty or standard of care.

Permission from a pt. or guardian to provide care.

A type of consent in which the pt. gives express authorization for provision of care and transport.

Permission for Tx given by a competent pt.   the potential risks, benefits, and alternatives to Tx have been explained.

A type of consent in which a pt. who is unable to give consent is given Tx under the legal assumption that he or she would want Tx.

A term relating to medical jurisprudence (law) or forensic medicine.

A person who is under the legal age in a given state but, because of other circumstances, is legally considered an adult.

The act of physically preventing a person from taking physical action.

Written documentation giving permission to medical personnel not to attempt resuscitation in the event of cardiac arrest.

Able to make rational decisions about personal well-being.

Written documentation that specifies medical Tx for a competent pt. should he or she become unable to make decisions.

A type of advance directive executed by a competent adult that appoints another individual to make medical Tx decisions on his or her behalf in the event that the person making the appointment loses decesion-making capacity.

Principles that identify conduct deemed morally desirable.

A code of conduct that can be defined by society, religion, or a person, affecting character, conduct, and conscience.

The manner in which principles of ethics are incorporated into professional conduct.

Making an untrue statement about someone's character or reputation  legal privilege or consent of the individual.

False statements about a person made in writing or through the mass media.

False verbal statements about a person.

Law enacted in 1996, providing criminal sanctions as well as for civil penalties for releasing a pt. PHI in a way not authorized by the pt.

Any information about health status, provision of health care, or payment for health care that can be linked to an individual.

The absence of circulatory and respiratory function.

Begins within 4-6 minutes of clinical death as cells start to die.

Irreversible cessation of all functions of the brain and brainstem.

Blood pooling at the lowest point of the body, causing discoloration of the skin.

The stiffening of body muscles caused by chemical changes within the muscle tissue

How long  death until rigor mortis occurs?

Decomposition of body tissues.

How long  death until putrefaction occurs?

It speaks for itself.