Free Paper Sample on Declining Trust in the Health Care System

Introduction

Distrust in the healthcare system denotes an overall lack of confidence in the health continuum. Therefore, it incorporates the relationship between patients and healthcare practitioners, equipment performance, insurers, and healthcare costs. The trust crisis in the healthcare system significantly influences health-seeking behavior, hospital experience, healthcare burden, medical expenses, and efficiency in service delivery. The trust crisis in healthcare has ethical connotations, which, if corrected, potentially improve patient experience, the welfare of healthcare providers, and efficiency in operations.

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Applying the Four Principles of Beauchamp and Childress

Beauchamp and Childress's four principles of biomedical ethics provide a framework for understanding the intricacy of the trust crisis in the healthcare system. The laws of autonomy, beneficence, maleficence, and justice may be debatable but capture medical ethics (Page, 2012). This makes them valid principles in discussing the causes, manifestations, effects, and possible remedies to distrust in the healthcare system. In medical practice, autonomy underscores the need for patients to be afforded the right to make informed choices individually.

On the other hand, beneficence implies that practitioners in care delivery must uphold the best interest in their decisions and actions (Page, 2012). In essence, they have a fiduciary duty to their patients and the patients' families. Non-maleficence requires that no harm be inflicted whatsoever, whereas justice emphasizes the need to regard both fairness and equality in its various senses within the healthcare delivery system.

Legal Contributions to Trust Crisis in the Healthcare System

The lack of comprehensive liability protection medics and health facilities in all settings results in constrained practice. The principle of justice, autonomy, and non-maleficence require that no harm should be inflicted on the patients whatsoever. Such principles are further anchored by the constitution, which protects the right to life. However, medics face everyday situations practice, which require immediate remedial and quick interventions to save the case. Nonetheless, the bureaucratic processes needed before such drastic decisions are taken impede quick responses (Shore, 2007).

In most dilemmas, such as the need to conduct abortion to save the life of a mother, free a bed space for someone who has a higher chance of surviving from an emergency, or euthanasia to a terminally ill patient to avoid extreme suffering end up in lawsuits. While medics are entrusted to protect life at all costs, the legal purview under which they operate strains it, making them appear negligent, especially in case of decisions that though well-intended turns out to be tragic.

Strict compliance requirements for tax-exempt hospitals make patients excessively alarmed about the status of the facility. In most cases, the tax-except hospitals have a litany of performance, structural and strategy requirements. For instance, limitations on charges and limits set on collections policies set confrontation between the facilities and the patients' community. Effectively, there is a likelihood of such facilities to be misconstrued as overly rent-seeking despite government controls.

Economic and Financial Issues Contributing to Trust Crisis in Healthcare System

Incomprehensive health care coverage or a complete lack of it among healthcare seekers impede the administration of care. While the cardinal role of a facility and physician is to protect human life at all costs, this is impossible in cases where the caregiver is uncertain who would eventually pay the accrued costs. The insistence by private and public health facilities that healthcare seekers must have comprehensive coverage as a priority for care causes the impression that costs supersede caregiving.

Underserved hospitals with inadequate facilities and few medics experience operational inefficiencies characterized by longer wait times and increased chances of misdiagnosis. All these inefficacies undermine the public trust in such facilities, which in effect reduces health-seeking behavior.

Impact of Various Issues That Are Contributing to the Trust Crisis in Healthcare System

The lack of comprehensive liability protection medics and health facilities in all settings results in constrained practice. The fear of lawsuits or withdrawal of practicing licenses makes it difficult for physicians to resolve medical dilemmas and act proactively.

Strict compliance requirements undermine the ability of hospitals to operate with a sense of autonomy. They often focus more on meeting government guidelines than offering cutting edge medicals care. This undermines the patients’ level of compliance with therapy, delays consultation with physicians, and patients' tendency to withhold critical information. When patients withhold such crucial details, they risk misdiagnosis and their participation in the entire medication process.

Conclusion

Much of the distrust in healthcare relate to the operational efficiencies and costs of getting healthcare. A universal health coverage scheme coupled with subsidy on medical supplies, will drastically restore confidence. The idea is that medical training is largely comprehensive, and practitioners often undergo refresher trainings, which means they are upbeat on contemporary ethical issues. Imperatively, cutting costs and availing the right equipment would complement the highly skilled labor force.

References

Gille, F., Smith, S., & Mays, N. (2015). Why public trust in health care systems matters anddeserves greater research attention. Journal of health services research & policy, 20(1), 62-64.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1355819614543161

Page, K. (2012). The four principles: Can they be measured, and do they predict ethicaldecision making?. BMC medical ethics, 13(1), 10.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1472-6939-13-10

Shore, D. A. (Ed.). (2007). The trust crisis in healthcare: causes, consequences, and cures. Oxford University Press.