ETHICAL Scenarios

Ethical

Scenarios

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You are the director of a busy medical imaging department. One of your imaging professionals has been accused of looking up personal medical records and X-RAY reports of her fiancees mother. The mother recently visited the hospital for a CT scan to rule out the cause of headaches. What do you do?

A technologist who has completed a procedure on a patient leaves the area grumbling, " I hate to do AIDS patients because I am afraid of catching the disease." A member of the custodial staff hears the technologist and asks who the AIDS patient is so he can pass the information along to his co-workers for safety reasons. The technologist responds by giving the patients name and room number.

You are an ARRT® registered technologist, and so is your favorite colleague. Your colleague has just finished conducting an exam on a close mutual friend, and starts to tell you about your friend’s case, the procedure, and what she noticed on the images. You stop her in mid-sentence and remind her about patient confidentiality. She stops talking, and the two of you continue with your duties and never discuss it again. What do you do????

You are an imaging professional who has heard a rumor that a family practice physician, Dr. Smith, whose office is in your clinic, is being investigated for Medicare fraud. Chatting with friends at the monthly get-together of classmates from your old imaging technology school, you share the rumor you heard. One of your classmates is married to a family practice physician just finishing his residency. Although you were not aware of this, apparently Dr. Smith had been negotiating with your classmate’s husband to join his practice. Because of the rumor you retold, he decides not to join Dr. Smith’s practice, nor is Dr. Smith able to recruit any other finishing residents. Interestingly, you find out later that the rumor was false. • Are you liable for defamation? • If so, is the defamation libel or slander? • Is it defamation per se? • Does Dr. Smith have to prove that he was damaged?

A nuclear medicine technologist is performing a bone scan on a patient from the inpatient mental health center. Extra images are needed, and consequently the patient is in the imaging room for almost an hour, alone with the technologist for most of that time. The patient obviously wants to talk and starts telling the technologist about his brother-in-law, who the patient feels is responsible for his involuntary committal to the facility. The patient becomes increasingly upset and eventually tells the technologist about his plan to get even with his brother-in-law when he is released. The plan involves tampering with the brakes on the brother-in-law’s car, which the patient assures the technologist he can do because he was formerly a mechanic. • Does the technologist have a duty to ensure that the brother-in-law is warned? • Is the fact that disclosing this information will probably have an effect on the patient’s continued hospitalization and treatment a consideration in this situation? • Does a duty to disclose outweigh the basic duty to keep patient confidences? • What should the technologist do if a statute mandates strict confidentiality regarding mental health treatment?

What if during a very hectic day in diagnostic radiology, you are called to the CT area for an emergency. You tell your supervisor that you must leave and that the patient in your room needs someone to stay with him. The supervisor states that she will send someone immediately, but she gets sidetracked with another emergency. In the meantime, the patient in your room tries to get up, falls, fractures a hip, and later dies from complications. You find yourself in court. During the court process you receive a letter explaining that you have been laid off because of yet another “right-sizing event.” • Who is legally responsible for the patient’s death? • What resources will you need to prepare yourself for court? • What can you do legally to protect yourself personally? • Do you have any legal method to protect your job situation?

What if, during your rotation in diagnostic radiography, one of the staff technologists with whom you must work treats you extremely unfairly? Unfortunately, this technologist is responsible for approving your proficiency in many areas. No matter how hard you try to be perfect in performing the procedures, this technologist finds something wrong and gives you poor proficiency ratings. You have discussed this with your classmates, and none of them are having this problem with the technologist. You are not having similar problems with any of the other staff technologists. You are working in this particular staff technologist’s room, and she sends you to get some supplies. When you return, the patient is on the floor and the technologist is not in the room. The patient sustains a fractured shoulder in the fall. The technologist states that you were to stay with the patient and tells the program director that you are generally incompetent and do not follow directions. She uses the poor proficiency ratings she has given you to support these statements. A disciplinary action is filed against you by the program director, and you are told that you will be suspended for 2 weeks. • What are your rights in this situation?

A male technologist is hired by the female director of radiology to perform computed tomography (CT). The director, as early as the interview, hints to the applicant that she is romantically available and thinks he is attractive. Throughout his first few months of employment, the director pays special attention to him and continues to hint at her availability. The technologist lets the director know that he is currently seeing someone and even introduces his significant other to the director when she comes to meet him for lunch. Over the next year the director continues to pay special attention to the technologist, makes comments about his attractiveness, and even says that she would like to get together with him. The technologist laughs off these comments as best he can. The position of supervisor of CT opens. The director approaches the male technologist and informs him that the position is his if he will become intimate with her. • Is this sexual harassment? • What kind of harassment is this? • Is the hospital liable for the acts of the director? What can the technologist do?

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