Ethical Decision-Making in Physical Therapy |
CASE 6You are a staff physical therapist in a large hospital that has positions for fifteen physical therapists and four physical therapist assistants, although currently there are openings for five therapists and two assistants. Recently your hospital has been very successful in obtaining some large managed care contracts with several large industries in your area. A part of the contract commits your department to teach back schools to these companies. Further, since your department is understaffed, you have been having difficulty seeing all of the outpatient referrals that you already have. You know that patients often wait two to three weeks to be evaluated and then may only be seen once a week for follow-up care. You are very worried about the quality of care patients are receiving. You believe that there are some ethical considerations involved in assuming more work than your department can handle. What are the ethical issues involved in this case?Since you have really enjoyed the teaching hospital environment and do not want to quit, what could you do or recommend to improve the situation?What if you were the department manager? Would the issues change?
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