Mr. Patrick Wallace was recently started on a blood pressure medication to treat his new diagnosis of hypertension (high blood pressure). He returns to see his doctor to make sure the new medication is working.
The office has recently hired a new medical assistant named Meredith. Meredith is having a hard time with the procedure, and so she looks at Mr. Wallace’s past few blood pressure (BP) results and assumes that it is probably about the same (Meredith is unaware of the most recent medication that was prescribed for high blood pressure).
The doctor comes into the exam room and reviews Mr. Wallace’s vital signs and medications. The doctor decides that, based on today’s results, the blood pressure medication dose is not effective, and increases the dose.
About two days after starting the new dose of medication, Mr. Wallace gets out of bed in the morning and becomes very dizzy and passes out. His wife frantically calls 911 and Mr. Wallace is taken to the ER, and his blood pressure is dangerously low. His doctor sees him in the ER and determines that his medication strength is too high and lowers it to his previous dose. Now Mr. Wallace has an expensive ambulance bill, and an ER bill, and has pain in his hip from the fall.
Who in the situation has responsibility for what has happened? Does it fall solely on the Medical Assistant? What should Meredith have done when she was having a hard time obtaining the blood pressure? Do you think that the patient should have to pay the medical bills?