Ethics Case Essay

Submitted By McGee4
Words: 908
Pages: 4

A situation occurred with our office assistant Jerry McCall, one day he was the only one at the office. A patient called in to have a prescription refilled and with Jerry being the only one at the office, yes he was an LPN but at the same time the patient should have called the office earlier so that the doctors could be the one to get the prescription refilled. There are only things that an LPN could do but the doctor is the one that could do more than the LPN which in this case is the one that is needed to refill the prescription.
In this case Jerry’s medical training does not qualify him to be able to refill any prescription for any patients. The doctors are the ones that could refill thing for the patient. With this patient leaving to go out of town in 30 minutes that does not give the doctor or the drug store time to fill the prescriptions. If Jerry could refill the medications for the patient there would be no way that they patient could get it in time for his trip out of town. An LPN is the ones that would work under the RN’s and the doctors so they have only a few things that they could do without the doctor’s being there to sign off on it. If the patient medication was something that controls his blood pressure then it is still the same and Jerry still could not refill the prescription for the patient due to having to have the doctor call in the refill order. The doctors or the RN’s are the ones that could try to get the patient medication refilled in the 30 minutes before the patient was leaving but most of the time to get a prescription refill could take longer than 30 minutes. When someone is going to be going out of town for a few days or even a few weeks they should make sure that their medications are filled in time for them not to be in a hurry to leave.
I would have to tell Jerry that he would have to tell the patient that the doctors were not in the office and they would be back after lunch and they could call to refill the prescription in at that time. If the patient got mad then I would have to say that I am sorry but I could not refill the prescription, the doctor would be the one that could refill the medications. It is also a good thing to is to try and explain what you could do as an LPN and that way the patient would know why Jerry could not refill the prescription in that limited time frame. If the patient was to have some type of reaction from the medication after Jerry did call in the refill, then Jerry could be in the lawsuit. The main reason that Jerry would be in the lawsuit would be due to Jerry only being an LPN and not an RN or the doctors which are the ones that could have the prescription refill. That is just like Jerry going behind the doctors back and refilling any prescriptions for any of the doctor patients. The only way that Jerry would be protected is if he did not refill the prescription or just wait and have the doctors to call in and have it refilled for the patients.
If Jerry did call in to have the prescription refilled and there was something that ended up happen to the patient then Jerry could lose his