Introduction
The major theme of this module is that most institutional healthcare providers are corporations however, sole owners and partnerships can also provide healthcare facility. The major discussion in this module is connected with corporate healthcare – the organizations, management, and liabilities they should assume and certain laws they should abide to.
Lessons learnt
There are a lot of lessons learned from this module. Detail knowledge of a corporation is learned in this module. Corporations are formed and are artificial beings and follow the rules and regulations as stated in the charter. Corporations possess unlimited liability, free transfer of ownership, ability to raise capital and taxation. The healthcare units are mostly operated as corporations; the governing body of healthcare institutes performs four functions, and it is important that proper policy and procedures should be in place. (Showalter, 2012) It is important that a healthcare institution should understand its liability that it holds towards its patient. One of the most common types of liability is vicarious liability, which means that the employer is responsible for the actions committed by an employee during the scope of employment (Joseph, 2013). Thus, an employer has to answer vicariously if the employee shows negligence in his part of service because employer has hired him and were responsible for his actions at work. (Showalter, 2012)
How to apply the learning of the lessons learned
The learning can be very clearly applied at my workplace, and it is important that healthcare institutions should manage employees and other major requirements properly. I will make sure that nursing staff is not exchanged within departments, and each department should have adequate staff to perform their activities. This is to avoid the doctrine of borrower-servant doctrine that will reduce the chances of error. In order to control vicarious liability, it will be ensured that physicians write details and prescriptions comprehensively so that chances of error are reduced to an extent.
Norton v. Argonaut Insurance Company Case
Effective management of medication and its dosage is a basic nursing skill taught in nursing schools and during their practice in healthcare institutions. Unfortunately, if the errors occur in administration of medication it can cause serious consequences for the patient. This can also result in legal penalty for the nurse practitioners. The fault that occurs can be very simple and can involve the participation of both many individuals and environment playing its role or just one single individual error in administration of medication. (Lisa, 2013)
In the U.S. case Norton v. Argonaut Insurance Company an administrative nurse assisted in childcare ward since there was a shortage of nurses there. Physician had written details about medication administration for a patient who was a young child. Negligence by the nurse was that she did not contact the physician to further confirm the details whether the dose was required to be injected or given orally, and she administered it via injecting it. There was negligence on behalf of a doctor that he did not state the requirements clearly. The infant died in this case. (Lisa, 2013)
The legal principle the case of Norton v Argonaut Insurance Co refers to is “erosion of captain of the ship and borrower servant doctrine.” This helped the hospital escape the liability of any errors in healthcare practice. This doctrine was strengthened by borrower servant doctrine that states that one who is normally an employee of another person, department or entity can be borrowed by another person, department, or entity. (Lisa, 2013) This meant that the borrowed employee is a servant of the borrower and represents him and will make him liable for the negligence of the original employer. Another legal principle in place was the doctrine of corporate liability where the hospital itself and the doctor were held liable. Hence, the case of Norton v Argonaut Insurance Co. committed both vicarious liability and corporate liability. (Lisa, 2013)
References
Joseph Berta (Nov 2003) “Employer Liability for the Wrongful Acts of its Employees” http://www.mccarthy.ca/pubs/wrongful_acts.pdf
Lisa Cowan (2013) “Literature Review and Risk Mitigation Strategy for Unintended Consequences of Computerized Physician Order Entry” Nursing Economics;31(1):27-31.
Showalter, J. S. (2012). The law of healthcare administration (6th ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.
