Ethical Obligations to Patients and Larger Community May Compete During COVID-19 Crisis

For most physicians, the needs of the individual patient in their office or clinic is the focus of their attention. But outside the setting of that single patient encounter is a larger community of patients in need, their families, and individuals who may later need care.Even in the best of times there may be a tension between a physician ’s ethical obligations to the individual patient and to the broader public. During a global pandemic such as COVID-19, that tension has been heightened and may come into play in many clinical scenarios, according to Rebecca Brendel, M.D., J.D., chair of the APA Committee on Ethics. She is director of the master’s degree program at the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics and a member of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs.“For most of us, in our practices, what we are most commonly thinking about is the single patient before us. Now we are in the midst of an enormous public health crisis, and as physicians we have an ethical obligation to think as well about the greater good.”She outlined two specific clinical scenarios that are liable to be common and in which competing ethical obligations to patient or public health will be at play:Prescriptions and hoarding of medicines: Patients are bound to be anxious about having an adequate supply of their medications during a period when pharmacies are being deluged and may be experiencing shortages. These patients may be inclined to request an extra supply of medications. ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: COVID-19 ethics hoarding medications prescriptions public health Rebecca Brendel social distancing Source Type: research