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An ethical dilemma found in a case study
By Toni Cesta , PhD, RN, FAAN Senior Vice President Lutheran Medical Center Brooklyn, NY
I will never forget my biggest ethical dilemma. It happened when I was a director of case management at a large medical center in New York City. It was the day after Thanksgiving. I was at work, but a lot of people in administration were off that day. I received a page from the director of critical care medicine. He was covering the ICU that day and wanted to transfer a patient to our hospital from another state.
I knew the patient he was referring to, because the patient recently had been in our hospital for a six-month length of stay, and the patient's discharge plan had been difficult and complex. The doctor explained to me that the patient had been readmitted to a hospital in another state, but that his wife wanted him to return to our hospital because she knew the nursing and medical staff and felt more comfortable there. The doctor wanted the patient in our hospital too, because he felt it...