CHAPTER-4

RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF

MEDICAL LABORATORY
PROFESSIONALS

1
 Objectives
Upon completion of this session the student will
be able to:
•Describe rights of medical laboratory professionals

•Discuss obligations of medical laboratory professionals

2
Rights of Medical Lab Professionals

 safe working environment

 appropriate wage, allowance
 legal protection
 security
 Insurance for occupational hazard
 access to medication
 professional risk allowance
 standard work load

3
Rights of Medical Lab Professionals
 proper annual leave (maternity/paternity leave)
 Right to exercise our profession ethically and legally
 Testing by the professionals not non-lab
 License for Med Lab personnel (not necessarily
pharmacists)
 Procurement of lab commodities
 the right to participate in health facility management
and policy making
 Vaccination

4
Right and obligation of medical laboratory
professionals:
4.1. Honesty
4.2. Dependability
4.3. Kindness and firmness
4.4. Humanity and Justice
4.5. Maintaining good reports
4.6. Adaptability
4.7. Co-operation
4.8. Ethical behaviors

5
 Right and obligation of medical
laboratory professionals:
Honesty
 In performing lab testing
 In reporting lab results
Dependability
 Taking your position seriously
 Being at work when you assigned to be
Kindness and firmness
 Use compassion with patients and co-workers
 Remain firm in your duties and in doing what is right and
best for your patient
6
 cont.…
4.4. Humanity and Justice
 Be fair in running all patients’ laboratory tests
 Put yourself in the patient’s position before you argue
or say something you will regret
 Put yourself in your co-worker’s position before you
argue or say something you will regret
4.5. Maintaining good reports
 Use good handwriting when signing out patient
results
 Take your time to record all patient information in all log
books
 Be honest in all your reporting 7
 Cont….
Adaptability
 Be willing to change work hours to help a co-worker
 Be willing to stay at work a little longer if patient work
is not completed
 Be willing to make changes in testing procedures and
other areas as needed

8
 Cont…..
Co-operation
 If you expect others to co-operate with you, you need to
co-operate with them
 Team work will finish lab work quicker than an
individual
Ethical behaviors
 In all that you do, base your actions and decisions on
ethical behavior

9
 Chapter 5.0.
Duties and responsibilities of Medical
Laboratory Professionals:

10
 Objectives
Upon completion of this session the student will
be able to:

List the duties of a medical laboratory

professional
Describe the responsibilities of medical
laboratory professionals.

11
 5.1.1. Duties to yourself
The medical laboratory technologist should:
• Maintain and improve the standard of your
performance by keeping your professional knowledge
and skills up to date throughout your working life.
• Acknowledge the limits of your professional
knowledge and competence. Do not pretend to know
everything.
• Use equipment and laboratory ware correctly and with
care
13
 cont.….
The medical laboratory technologist should:
• refrain from engaging in activities that may affect your health
and lead to impairment
• be aware of laws and regulations governing medical
laboratory technology
• not waste reagents and other laboratory supplies
• not drink alcohol during laboratory working hours or when
on emergency stand-by
• follow safety procedures and know how to apply first aid
• never taking anything from place of work that does not
belong to you

14
 5.1.2. Duties to your profession
The medical laboratory technologist should:
• uphold and maintain the dignity and respect of
medical laboratory profession
• strive to maintain a reputation of honesty, integrity
and reliability.
• contribute to the advancement of the profession by
– improving the body of knowledge,
– adopting scientific advances that benefit the patient
– maintaining high standards of practice and
education, and
– seeking fair socioeconomic working conditions for
members of the profession. 15
 Cont…..
• promote the image and status of your profession by
maintaining high standards in your professional
practice and through active support of your
professional bodies.
• take responsibility for your professional acts
• not misuse your professional skills or knowledge for
Personal gain

16
 5.1.3. Duties to Society

The medical laboratory technologist should:

• Deal responsibly with scarce health care resources

• Dedicate themselves to serve the healthcare needs

of the public

17
 2.6. Duties to the environment

The medical laboratory technologist should:

• protect the environment and the public by assuring
that health care waste is disposed of legally and in an
environmentally friendly manner

18
 5.1.5 Duties to Patients
Medical laboratory professionals Obligations:
• always regard concern for the best interests or well-being
of your patients as your primary professional duty.
• honor the trust of your patients
• be mindful that a medical laboratory science practitioner
is in a position of power over a patient and avoid abusing
your position.
• respect patients’ privacy and dignity
• treat patients politely and with consideration
• apply the principle of informed consent as an on-going
process

19
 cont.…..
Medical laboratory professionals should:
• recognize the rights of patients to expect that you will not
pass on any personal and confidential information you
acquire in the course of your professional duties, unless
they agree to disclosure or the law demands
• ask your patients’ permission before sharing information
with their spouses, partners or relatives.
• always seek to give priority to the laboratory diagnostic
service to patients solely on the basis of clinical need.

• Medical Laboratory professionals are accountable for

the quality and integrity of the laboratory services
they provide 20
 “Remember the patient is the
reason, and the only reason for
your professional existence: In
order for a patient to receive the
best care possible, you must
make proper diagnosis.”
21
 Chapter 6

The Patient’s Bill of Rights

and Law

22
 Objectives
Upon completion of this session the students will
be able to:
• Define terms such as bill of rights, malpractice,
tort law, licensure, accreditation and
certification
• Describe example patient bill of rights such as
from the American Hospital Association
• Discuss how Ethiopia is addressing the patient’s
bill of rights.
23
 6.0. Patient’s bill of rights:

All patients have the:

6.1. Right to truth
6.2. Right to refuse treatment
6.3. Right to know about Informed consent
6.4. Right to privacy
6.5. Right to get complete information concerning his
diagnosis, treatment
6.6. Right to know Ethiopian medico-Legal issues (code
of law)
24
 A patients bill of rights
• is a statement of the rights to which patients are entitled as
recipients of medical care
• articulates the positive rights which doctors and hospitals
ought to provide patients, thereby providing information,
offering fair treatment, and granting them autonomy over
medical decisions
• is an effective health care collaboration between patients and
physicians and other health care professionals
• Includes:
– Open and honest communication, respect for personal and
professional values, and sensitivity to differences are integral to
optimal patient care

25
 Cont….
• Hospitals must ensure a health care ethic that respects
the role of patients in decision making about treatment
choices and other aspects of their care
• Hospitals must be sensitive to cultural, racial, linguistic,
religious, age, gender, and other differences as well as
the needs of persons with disabilities

26
 Bill of Rights
6.1. Right to truth
• The patient has the right to considerate and
respectful care
• The patient has the right to ask and be informed of
the existence of business relationships among the
hospital, educational institutions, other health care
providers, or payers that may influence the patient's
treatment and care
• Patients are responsible for providing information
about past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications,
and other matters related to health status
27
 Bill of Rights

6.2. Right to refuse treatment

• The patient has the right to make decisions about the plan of
care prior to and during the course of treatment and to refuse a
recommended treatment or plan of care to the extent permitted
by law and hospital policy and to be informed of the medical
consequences of this action.

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 Bill of Rights
6.3. Right to know about Informed consent
• The patient has the right to have an advance directive (such as a
living will, health care proxy, or durable power of attorney for
health care)
• Health care institutions must advise patients of their rights
under state law and hospital policy to make informed medical
choices
• The patient has the right to timely information about hospital
policy that may limit its ability to implement fully a legally
valid advance directive
29
 Bill of Rights
6.4. Right to privacy
• The patient has the right to every consideration of privacy
• The patient has the right to expect that all communications
and records pertaining to his/her care will be treated as
confidential by the hospital
– except in cases such as suspected abuse and public
health hazards when reporting is permitted or required
by law.
• The patient has the right to expect that the hospital will
emphasize the confidentiality of this information when it
releases it to any other parties entitled to review
information in these records
30
 Bill of Rights

6.5. Right to get complete information concerning his

diagnosis, treatment
• The patient has the right to and is encouraged to
obtain from physicians and other direct caregivers
relevant, current, and understandable information
concerning diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis
• The patient has the right to consent to or decline to
participate in proposed research studies or human
experimentation

31
 6.5 Bill of Rights

• The patient has the right to expect reasonable

continuity of care when appropriate and to be
informed by physicians and other caregivers of
available and realistic patient care options when
hospital care is no longer appropriate

32
 Bill of Rights
6.6. Right to know Ethiopian medico-Legal issues
(code of law)
• The patient has the right to be informed of hospital
policies and practices that relate to patient care,
treatment, and responsibilities
• The patient has the right to be informed of available
resources for resolving disputes, grievances, and
conflicts, such as ethics committees, patient
representatives, or other mechanisms available in
the institution

33
 Bill of Rights
• The patient has the right to be informed of the
hospital's charges for services and available payment
methods
• Patients are responsible for providing necessary
information for insurance claims and for working
with the hospital to make payment arrangements,
when necessary.

34
 6.6.1. Legal concepts in Medical
Laboratory
General Legal Concepts
• Law:
– defined as those rules made by humans who
regulated social conduct in a formally prescribed
and legally binding manner
– based upon concerns for fairness and justice

35
 Functions of Law in Medical
Laboratory
• It provides a framework for establishing which medical
laboratory action in the care of client are legal
• It differentiates the medical laboratory professionals
responsibilities from those of other health professionals
• It helps to establish the boundaries of independent
medical laboratory action
• It assists in maintaining a standard of medical laboratory
practice by making medical laboratory professional
accountable under the law

36
 Types of law
Law governs the relationship of private individuals with
government and with each other
• Public Law: refers to the body of law that deals with
relationships between individuals and governmental
agencies.
• Private Law: is the body of law that deals with
relationship between individuals
• Contract Law: involves the enforcement of
agreements among private individuals or the payment
of compensation for failure to fulfill the agreements.
37
 Types of law cont’d
• Tort Law: the word tort means “wrong” or “bad” in
Latin. It defines and enforces duties and rights
among private individuals that are not based on
contractual agreements. Example of tort law
applicable to medical laboratory, negligence and
malpractice.

38
 Legal Aspects of Laboratory
Medicine
A.Malpractice: legally, a failure to provide the
standard of care that is due a patient, i.e.
professional negligence
B. Three distinct elements must be present
1. Patient must have sustained measurable injury
2. Court must find negligence on the part of the
defendant that professional standards of care was
not followed
3. There must be proof the negligence was the
cause (legal term: proximate cause) of the patient's
injury 39
 Most Common Areas of Potential
Negligence
• Misidentification, mislabeling
• Instrument failure: poor Quality Control, failure to
standardize instrument, jammed key on automatic
printout device, misplaced decimal points on
calculations, inversion of numeric values.
• Specimen validity: proper collection and handling
• Venipuncture

40
Legal issues in Medical Laboratory
Medical Laboratory Practice Act:
• regulate the practice of medical laboratory
• Legally define and describe the scope of medical
laboratory practice, which the law seeks to regulate,
there by protecting the public as well
• It protects the user’s professional capacity
• Each country may have different acts but they all have
common purpose: to protect the public
• It grants the public a mechanism to ensure minimum
standards for entry into the profession and to
distinguish the unqualified.
41
Standards of professional Practice
• attempts to ensure that its practitioners are
competent and safe to practice through the
establishment of standard practice
• Establishes and implements standards of practice
are major functions of a professional organization
• The profession’s responsibilities inherent in
establishing and implementing standards of practice
include:
– To establish, maintain, and improve standards
– To hold members accountable for using
standards
42
 Standards of professional Practice cont’d
– To educate the public to appreciate the standard
– To protect the public from individual who have not
attended the standards or will fully do not follow
them
– To safeguard individual members of the profession
• When standards of professional practice are
implemented, they serve as unit for the measurements
used in licensure, certification, accreditations, quality
assurance, peer review, and public policy.
• The profession maintains standards in practice in part
through appropriate entry.
43
 Credentialing
• is the process of determining and maintaining
competence-medical laboratory practice.
Credentials include:
• Licensure
• Registration
• Certification
• Accreditation

44
 Credentialing, cont’d
• Licensure: it is a legal permit a government agency grants to
individuals to engage in the practice of a profession and to
use particular title.
• Registration: is listing of an individual’s name and other
information on the official roster of a governmental agency.

45
 Credentialing, cont’d

• Certification: is the voluntary practice of validating that

an individual medical laboratory professional met minimum
standards of medical laboratory competence.

• Accreditation: is a process by which a voluntary

organization or governmental agency appraises and grants
accredited status to institutions and/or programs.

46
 Chapter 6 Review Questions
• What are malpractice and negligence?
• How can a medical laboratory professional
avoid malpractice and negligence situations?
• What is the difference between licensure,
accreditation and certification?
• How Ethiopia is addressing patient’s rights?

• Chapter 7 is next.
47
 References

• Ethiopian Medical Laboratory Association (Ethiopia Medical

Laboratory Association) Code of Ethics for Medical Laboratory
Technologists Practicing in Ethiopia, 2008
• Medical Ethics Manual, World Medical Association, 2005
• James M. Gripando Nursing Perspectives and issue; Delmar
publishers INC 3rd edition
• International Federation of Biomedical Laboratory Science
(IFBLS) code of ethics IFBLS general assembly of delegates,
1992

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