The Beatrice Vance Case

In the Beatrice Vance case, it was found that both the CEO as well as the CIO (chief information officer) were found liable in a wrongful death lawsuit. In your initial post, discuss why the court ruled that the CIO was just as guilty as the CEO. Do you agree with the court’s decision? Be sure to support your position. In your follow-up posts to peers, be sure to support your opinion if you find yourself disagreeing with their assessment.

REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE’S DISCUSSION TO THE ABOVE QUESTION AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU AGREE. (MINIMUM OF 200 WORDS)

CLASSMATE’S POST

I found this case to be interesting as I had not heard of it before. I tried researching to clarify some information, but was unable to find any answers to my questions possibly due to the age of this case. My first question being at what point was Beatrice seen originally? The scenario states that she had already “checked in” yet other sources say she was seen by a nurse (ABC News, 2006). If Beatrice was seen by a nurse who neglected to take vital signs or do an initial assessment then I would agree that the CEO should be held liable for not placing protocols in place that had been supported by the American Heart Association. The American Heart Association recommended that people presenting with heart attack symptoms should be given an ECG within 10 minutes of arrival to an ER (Zegre-Hemsey, Sommargren, & Drew, 2011). However a 5 year study ending in 2008 found that the mean time for all patients from arrival to initial ECG was 43 minutes (Zegre-Hemsey, Sommargren, & Drew, 2011). Is it right to hold hospital administration liable for protocols that aren’t standard everywhere? Should this one hospital’s failure to deliver adequate care in a timely manner be any different from other hospitals that do the same? What makes this hospital administration different from others that also fail? I also could not find information that confirmed that the hospital had this protocol in place, but neglected to use it in Beatrice’s case. In the case of the CIO being liable, if the hospital had the protocol in place, but did not have the technology to properly implement it due to the direct action of the CIO then yes I would agree they are also liable. However, with given such little information I feel this is sadly an unfortunate scenario. Do I agree that Beatrice’s gender played a role in the quality or urgency in her care? Absolutely. Gender, racial and socioeconomic factors all play a role in the that we receive, but social injustice or healthcare disparities do not fall on any single person. Corporations that don’t pursue equal access and treatment to healthcare should be held responsible. Laws and regulations should be placed to protect patients. In this scenario, I would have to disagree with the jury unless they were able to prove that through the direct actions of the CEO and CIO caused a culture of neglect or placed a structural neglect for clinicians to provide timely adequate care.

References

ABC News. (2006, September 17). Illinois Woman’s ER Wait Death Ruled Homicide. Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=2454685&page=1

Zègre-Hemsey, J., Sommargren, C. E., & Drew, B. J. (2011). Initial ECG acquisition within 10 minutes of arrival at the emergency department in persons with chest pain: time and gender differences. Journal of emergency nursing, 37(1), 109–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2009.11.004