CHP Medical Ethics & Patient Rights 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A physician discovers that a colleague is impaired while on duty. The physician's ethical obligation under most professional codes is to:
- Ignore the situation to avoid workplace conflict
- Cover for the colleague until the shift ends
- Report the impairment to appropriate supervisory or licensing authorities (Correct answer)
- Confront the colleague privately and monitor the situation
Correct answer: Report the impairment to appropriate supervisory or licensing authorities
Professional ethics require reporting an impaired colleague to protect patient safety, which takes precedence over collegial loyalty.
Question 2: Which document allows a patient to appoint someone to make healthcare decisions if the patient becomes incapacitated?
- Living will
- Durable power of attorney for healthcare (Correct answer)
- Do-not-resuscitate order
- POLST form
Correct answer: Durable power of attorney for healthcare
A durable power of attorney for healthcare designates a specific person (healthcare proxy) to make medical decisions when the patient cannot.
Question 3: A patient's right to access their own medical records under HIPAA is primarily governed by:
- The Privacy Rule's individual access provision (Correct answer)
- The Security Rule's technical safeguard requirements
- The Breach Notification Rule
- The Enforcement Rule
Correct answer: The Privacy Rule's individual access provision
HIPAA's Privacy Rule (45 CFR §164.524) grants individuals the right to inspect and obtain copies of their own PHI.
Question 4: A research hospital wants to use patient data for a new study. To maintain ethical standards, participants must provide:
- Verbal consent witnessed by one staff member
- Implied consent through continued treatment
- Written informed consent that is voluntary and comprehension-based (Correct answer)
- Retrospective consent after data collection is complete
Correct answer: Written informed consent that is voluntary and comprehension-based
Research ethics require prospective, voluntary, written informed consent that ensures participants understand risks and benefits.
Question 5: The ethical principle of non-maleficence most directly prohibits a provider from:
- Charging excessive fees for services
- Performing unnecessary procedures that risk patient harm (Correct answer)
- Sharing patient information with a specialist
- Recommending expensive treatment alternatives
Correct answer: Performing unnecessary procedures that risk patient harm
Non-maleficence ('do no harm') prohibits actions that expose patients to unnecessary risk or injury without commensurate benefit.
Question 6: A patient requests that their HIV-positive status not be documented in their electronic health record. The provider should:
- Honor the request completely and omit the diagnosis
- Explain that clinically significant information must be documented for safe care (Correct answer)
- Transfer care to another provider who will comply
- File a complaint against the patient with hospital administration
Correct answer: Explain that clinically significant information must be documented for safe care
Providers have an ethical and legal duty to maintain accurate records; withholding clinically significant information could compromise safe and coordinated care.
Question 7: Which ethical framework evaluates the morality of an action based solely on its consequences and overall outcome?
- Deontology
- Virtue ethics
- Utilitarianism (Correct answer)
- Principlism
Correct answer: Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism judges actions by whether they maximize overall benefit and minimize harm across all affected parties.
CHP Medical Ethics & Patient Rights 3
A physician discovers that a colleague is impaired while on duty.
The physician's ethical obligation under most professional codes is to: