Medical Ethics: My Personal Code Of Ethics

My Personal Code of Ethics

Integrity: As a public health professional I will practice with out bias or prejudice with my fellow colleagues, patients and within organizations

Empathy: I will be supportive of others opinions and thoughts even if they differ from my own. I will try and related to others and their circumstances. I will seek an open dialogue with my colleagues, community and organizations to have empathy towards their views and circumstances.

Communication: I will strive to communicate effectively with care and concern for those with whom I come in contact with whether within a business or patient/individual remembering that my communications are a reflection of my character and the company I represent.

Evidenced-base: I will

He opts for the chiropractic care and seeing the massage therapist. We agree that if he is not better in several visits he will see his primary care doctor. We discuss that imaging is not indicated at this point as the pain is reproduced with palpation of the area and the exam is essentially normal. Clinically it is reasonable to assume that subjectively and objectively the area is a strain and would likely resolve in a 5-7 days. The patient consents, he is treated in our office and receives chiropractic care and massage therapy and leaves the office “feeling better” and the pain now being “+4/10”.

Unfortunately, at 3:00PM he takes his son to the orthopedist for a pre-op exam for a torn medial meniscus of the knee. He mentions to the orthopedist that his right arm is tingling and the orthopedist tells him he needs a cervical MRI and walks him down the hall 9this group practice owns the MRI facility) to get the procedure done in his office. The patient reports back to me that the MRI was negative and he will follow-up in our office on Monday if the pain does not continue to

The World Health Organization (WHO) film discusses that each person be treated with dignity and respect, as was he. Additionally, he was treated using evidence-based guidelines and criteria for the diagnosis. The orthopedist breached ethical conduct and engaged in intentional deceit when he ordered on MRI on a patient who did not meet clinical guidelines. Every Doctor requesting a spinal MRI for Blue Cross patient must document that a patient has met one of the above criteria before an MRI can be ordered. I knew that this physician had lied to the insurance company to get the MRI as I had seen the patient only hours earlier and he did not meet clinical criteria. My dilemma was to either report the physician to Blue Cross for suspected abuse and/or report the physician to the Illinois Department of Professional