Impact of Ethical Frameworks in Clinical Care on Prescription Practices and Patient Outcomes

Abstract

The ethical decision-making process in a clinical setting is vital in improving patient care. Yet, many a time, the quality of the physician’s prescriptions is broken by outside forces like polypharmacy, private hospitals, and pathological laboratories. The research looks into the closely-knit workings of doctors and medical institutions, and how pharmaceutical companies reward strategies such as sponsored luncheons and conferences in order to sway health care policy. These become a problem because they lead to unnecessary treatment, higher costs of health care and even pain to the patients. Drawing on the analysis of the ethical problems created by such conflicts of interest, this essay seeks to highlight the need to incorporate rule utilitarianism in clinical decision making. Rule utilitarianism, which calls for adherence to core principles of ethics to enhance social good, is a solution to the problem of unscrupulous practices in medicine. The study suggests measures such as limiting the engagement of pharmaceutical marketers and adopting the use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) to enhance the quality of prescriptions. It has also proposed setting up an automated Prescription Quality Assessment System (APQAS) to monitor and maintain the quality of clinical prescriptions within and between healthcare facilities. Professional codes of ethics are seen as essential tools in upholding standard practices, especially for developing countries like Bangladesh and India, which have a poorly enforced regulatory environment and a culture of unethical behaviors. There is hope, that due conflicts of interest could be reduced with the use of ethical decision-making systems and modern health systems technologies such as emphasis on patients care.