As a chief operating officer of a hospital, you have been tasked with opening a new ambulatory care center in your city.

Write a 2-3 page paper in which you:

1. Specify whether you would utilize the professional autonomy, social contract, or free market perspective as the paradigm to design the structure of your new center. Debate at least two (2) advantages and two (2) disadvantages of your chosen perspective. Provide at least two (2) examples of your perspective in action to support your response.
2. Analyze the key components of three (3) sources of law related to the effects that each source could potentially have on your healthcare organization’s new initiative.
3. Use at least two (2) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• This course requires use of new Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different than other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review the SWS documentation for details.
• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow SWS or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Describe the evolution of hospitals and sources of law.
• Examine tort law and the criminal aspects of health care.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in healthcare policy, law, and ethics.
• Write clearly and concisely about healthcare policy and law using proper writing mechanics.

Expert Answer and Explanation

Health Policy and Law

Bioethics is a domain of health law and policy that determines the decisions that are made in ethical issues that arise in the course of care. It serves as the intersection between societal values, public policy law, medicine, and individual morals intersect (Reddy & Mythri, 2016). Over time, the three perspectives that have influenced health law and policy are the social contract, free market, and the professional autonomy perspective. Healthcare managers are required to utilize the model that is most applicable for them by assessing the individual standards in the context of the present environment (Reddy & Mythri, 2016). As a COO of the hospital I serve, I would be quick to apply the Professional Autonomy Perspective as it has many advantages that would ensure increased productivity in the organization.

Utilizing the Professional Autonomy Perspective in Structuring a New Ambulatory Center

The professional autonomy perspective dominated healthcare organization between 1880 and 1960, and is grounded on the idea that the medical profession has the ability to manage itself (Teitelbaum & Wilensky, 2016). According to this model, healthcare givers have scientific and medical expertise which is enough to guide them through the legal authority of their relations with their patients (Teitelbaum & Wilensky, 2016). The proponents of this model argue that medical experts should be given the legal oversight of the medicine practice. Physicians can hence control the terms of payment, amounts of payments, and the standards of granting medical licenses (Teitelbaum & Wilensky, 2016). Healthcare givers also have the autonomy of determining the patient types they would treat as well as the level to which patient information should be disclosed. 

Advantages of Utilizing this Model

One of the primary advantages of this model is that it increases productivity of the healthcare givers through empowerment. That is, healthcare givers do not have to answer to many other people, and hence have no reason for underperformance (Salvatore, Numerato, & Fattore, 2018). Also, the model reduces the chances of interference of healthcare by other players such as insurers.

Disadvantages of the Model

A major disadvantage of the physician autonomy perspective is that most of the healthcare services that the physicians deemed necessary are never subjected to scientific validation. This creates a loophole where unscrupulous care givers can use the power to implement policies that only favor them at the expense of the wellness of the patients (Teitelbaum & Wilensky, 2016). Also, the model dismisses the crucial contribution of other players such as regulators, which could reduce the quality of care.

Examples of my Perspective in Action

Physicians in the unit are faced with several ethical dilemmas that seem to slow down work, patients in the waiting room stage numerous complaints on the increased wait times. Inside one of the consultation rooms, J.D. a patient with a terminal illness wants to sign a form that would allow physicians to end his life and reduce suffering but his family is strongly against the idea. Utilizing the physician autonomy model, the attending physician decides to make the final decision for the patient, which brings back normalcy in the unit.

Components of Three Sources of Law

The Patient Protection and Affordable Act (ACA) is one of the laws that guide the relations between patients and providers (French et al., 2016). The first key component of the sources of law that would influence the new perspectives of the healthcare initiative is credibility. Government sources of healthcare policies such as ACA are credible enough as they have been tested over a long period of time. Also, I would be sure to add universal inclusion to the key components. Some laws fail to guarantee full healthcare giver inclusion in the healthcare decisions, which would be unsuitable for the chosen perspective. Lastly, I would check for relevance in the sources of law, as some of the laws of healthcare are likely to be irrelevant and would slow me down in implementing the model in the new ambulatory care center.

References

French, M. T., Homer, J., Gumus, G., & Hickling, L. (2016). Key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA): a systematic review and presentation of early research findings. Health services research, 51(5), 1735-1771.

Reddy, M. S., & Mythri, S. V. (2016). Health-care ethics and the free market value system. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 38(5), 371.

Salvatore, D., Numerato, D., & Fattore, G. (2018). Physicians’ professional autonomy and their organizational identification with their hospital. BMC health services research, 18(1), 775.

Teitelbaum, J. B., & Wilensky, S. E. (2016). Essentials of health policy and law. Chapter 1: Setting the stage: An Overview of Health policy and LawJones & Bartlett Publishers. http://samples.jbpub.com/9781449653309/50681_ch01_6041.pdf