Background

During review of a standard quality assurance report, one of the members of the medical center's Board of Trustees inquired about a medical error found within the report. Twenty-two oncology patients had received radiation therapy dosages in excess of what had been prescribed for them. The errors had occurred due to flaws in the calibration of the linear accelerator. The medical physicist responsible for the errors had been asked to resign his position.

The Medical Center CEO stated that it was the responsibility of the medical staff to handle the medical errors issue and thus decided to not inform the affected patients about the errors. The Board disagreed with the CEO's assertion, and following further discussion and findings requested that the hospital administrative staff review the hospital's ethical responsibility to the patients and its liability and report its findings within two weeks. Following these discussions, the Board submitted this case to the hospital's ethics committee for its opinion, against the CEO's wishes due to his concern for preserving the image of the oncology program."

Evaluative and discuss the impact of related to the question to the background: (using references)

Name a law that allows for patients to have the right to make decisions about their treatment options, and be informed of all treatments and have access to all medical records disclosed to them.