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67. Case: What is Angela’s Choice?
View Case Study: 67. Case: What is Angela’s Choice?Angela Flores is a six year old with some minor developmental delays caused by traumatic birth. She has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor and her prognosis is poor. The health care team is trying to determine goals of care and a develop treatment plan. Angela lives with and is cared for by her…
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65. Case: Conflict in an Ethics Consultation
View Case Study: 65. Case: Conflict in an Ethics ConsultationThe next three cases are from our Advanced Clinical Consultation Workshop facilitated by Paul Hutchinson, Imagined Spaces. These cases were submitted to us from Paul. I find it is often team conflict that can lead to an ethics consult and this will find its way into the consultation space. This can present in a couple…
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60. Case: Health Care Providers Under Quarantine
View Case Study: 60. Case: Health Care Providers Under QuarantineMy story starts in early April, during a routine day shift in our minor care area. A previously well middle-aged man, recently returned from Hong Kong, presented with fever. Because SARS was already recognized and we’d gone through the recent experience of a crash intubation with our first case at Vancouver General, this patient was…
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55. Case: What is My Obligation?
View Case Study: 55. Case: What is My Obligation?A family physician in a small, remote community assesses a patient, who is a local schoolteacher, as developing a post-partum psychosis. He feels he lacks adequate training or experience to manage her care. He recommends she seek treatment at a distant large mental health centre but she refuses to travel to the centre because of…
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54. Case: Professional Role
View Case Study: 54. Case: Professional RoleWhile doing a weekday home visit to an elderly patient, a VON nurse in a small community finds the patient’s son at home. The patient has mentioned that her son teaches at the local elementary school, but he has never been present during any of the nurse’s previous visits to the house. On a weekday…
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53. Case: Disease Stigma
View Case Study: 53. Case: Disease StigmaA patient has been followed by you, his family doctor, for several medical issues and is being seen for a minor work-related injury. He is very negative and tearful but will not acknowledge his symptoms when asked. You believe he is depressed and you know you can provide treatment for his depression. However, the patient…
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35. Case: Competing Interests?
View Case Study: 35. Case: Competing Interests?A medical device had been developed by a physician who provides care at your local hospital. The department he works in wants to begin to use that device on a regular basis. A process to guide this action has been developed by the physician in question and his team. They would like the ethics committee…
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34. Case: To Tell or Not to Tell
View Case Study: 34. Case: To Tell or Not to TellThe head pathologist of the regional hospital informs the head pathologist of the tertiary care centre that the post-mortem examination of a former patient, Mrs. Dempsey, has revealed that she suffered from a neurological infection called CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease). The tertiary centre pathologist reports this to the VP of Acute Care who determines through investigation…
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32. Case: To Report or Not
View Case Study: 32. Case: To Report or NotDr. B is the epidemiologist and director of infection control for an academic health centre. The reportable disease statutes and regulations in Dr. B’s province specify that hospitals and other health care facilities throughout the province are required to track nosocomial infections (infections not present in patients prior to their admission to the hospital) and…
Case Repository
Category: Patient Safety
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