Case: CHOOSING THE RIGHT HOSPITAL

Emergency services ambulance personnel regularly transport suspected stroke patients to Hospital A. This hospital has no neurologists or neurosurgeons on its medical staff but does provide coffee and donuts to transport personnel. Ambulance personnel have an option to take the suspected stroke victim to Hospital B, which is within five blocks of Hospital A. Hospital B has a well-trained stroke team with staff neurologists and neurosurgeons readily available.

Ethical and Legal Issues

1. Describe the ethical issues in this case.

2. Describe the organizational politics that might come into play.

3. Discuss how organizational politics may prevent an ethics committee from becoming involved in many of the issues just described. Although the committee's involvement is strictly advisory, its value to an organization has yet to be fully realized.