Identify a contemporary legal issue within the health care industry or Term Paper

Identify a contemporary legal issue within the health care industry or within a selected organization. Describe potential ethica - Term Paper Example In a sense, medical malpractice is a potential ethical issue rather than a mere legal issue. When a patient approaches a doctor, he holds the belief that the whole medical community including nurses and therapists would assist him to recover from the illness. However, once the patient comes to know that the healers are of little compassion, he/she gets frustrated and thus the professional ethics of medical practitioners are questioned. It is defined that â€Å"a medical mistake becomes medical malpractice whenever the care of a patient falls below accepted community standards and causes a patient’s injury or death (Medical Malpractice)†. However, an ethical conflict persists with this issue as it is very difficult to determine specific community level standards. Although medical errors and malpractices are committed by individuals, it would adversely affect the professional stature of nation’s health care as a whole. The decline in total ethical value indicates t he diminishing quality of health care operations. This situation often becomes a barrier to health care providers in formulating effective medical policies.