Medical Ethics & Patient Rights Flashcards

The Tarasoff ruling established that mental health providers have a duty to:

Answer: Protect third parties from foreseeable harm posed by a patient

The Tarasoff case established the duty to protect identifiable third parties when a patient poses a credible threat, which applies in telehealth settings.

A telehealth provider in State A treats a patient located in State B where the provider is not licensed. The primary ethical and legal concern is:

Answer: Practice without a valid license constituting unauthorized practice of medicine

Providing clinical services without licensure in the patient's state constitutes unauthorized practice of medicine, violating both legal and ethical standards.

A patient enrolled in a telehealth program for addiction recovery relapses and requests that this information not be shared with their employer's EAP program. Under 42 CFR Part 2, the provider must:

Answer: Maintain confidentiality unless the patient provides written consent to disclose

42 CFR Part 2 provides stricter confidentiality protections for substance use disorder treatment records, requiring explicit patient consent for disclosure.

In telehealth, 'therapeutic privilege' refers to a provider's decision to:

Answer: Withhold information from a patient that may cause psychological harm

Therapeutic privilege is the controversial practice of withholding information believed to harm the patient, though most ethicists caution against it as it undermines autonomy.

A deaf patient requires a sign language interpreter for their telehealth appointment. Under the ADA, the provider must:

Answer: Provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services at no additional charge to the patient

The ADA requires healthcare providers to provide effective communication accommodations, including qualified interpreters, at no cost to the patient.

A telehealth coordinator receives a request from law enforcement for a patient's session records without a warrant. The ethically and legally correct response is to:

Answer: Consult legal counsel and refuse to release records absent a valid legal order

Absent a valid court order, subpoena, or specific HIPAA exception, patient records are protected and should not be disclosed without consulting legal counsel.

An elderly telehealth patient's adult child attempts to speak on the patient's behalf during the session without any documented power of attorney. The provider should:

Answer: Verify the patient's decisional capacity and, if intact, obtain the patient's consent for family participation

A competent adult patient retains the right to make their own decisions; family participation requires the patient's explicit consent unless legal surrogate authority is established.